Quid Pro Quo
by Rap541
Summary: Ever hear the one about whoever hunts monsters risks becoming what they hunt? maybe it works both ways
1. Chapter 1

"Quid Quo Pro"

" I don't like it," Colonel Tigh muttered. He paced around Adama's quarters. " I think we should just space the damn thing and be done with it." He glared at Adama. " We don't owe it any mercy."

Adama tried not to get angry. It was just another sign of stress on a ship where there would be no breaks and precious little hope. Tigh was just as affected as everyone else. Lately the negativity, unreasonableness and spiteful behavior had outrun the drinking. He almost preferred the drinking. Almost. " It's not mercy, it's necessary. She's a Cylon with technical and strategic knowledge." He looked over at Dr. Baltar. That was another one showing the signs of stress, but Baltar had been a twitchy mess since the beginning. "What do you think, Dr. Baltar?"

"In theory, interrogating the Cylon should provide us with important information. However," and Baltar began to visibly twitch, " I haven't had time to spare to even consider it. Also, I seriously doubt that this… version of Sharon Valerii will willingly give up useful information without imminent threat. Considering her reactions to physical interrogation…." Baltar's voice trailed off, his tone one of distaste.

"I was thinking of a softer approach," Adama said after a moment. Recent events had certainly shown the harder approach didn't work at all, but he would be damned if he just allowed the Cylon in the brig to use resources, eat, sleep, chitchat with his male soldiers, and have half human babies. He was tired of having to force Sharon Valerii at gun point to help them. It was time they found a lever.

Tigh snorted. " Don't we already know how that turns out? How many men do we need to have running around in love with this thing?"

"No," Baltar said suddenly. He looked at Adama carefully, clearly understanding what was being proposed. " You want to play with its head, have someone get inside and twist the information out in a friendly way, without her realizing it. That's tricky. Tricky and time consuming. I'd need to spend time every day cultivating a relationship… It's time I don't have, to be quite honest, and your people just don't have the technical qualification to divine what is useful and what isn't."

" Most of them don't, but there are a few," Adama said easily, willing himself to not belt Baltar in the face. Baltar had a certain intellectual snobbery that offended Adama. The man behaved as though the officer corps of the Galactica were ill-educated children, which simply wasn't the case.

" Yes, yes, but so few of them can be spared for any extra duty," Baltar said quickly. "Why, last week I asked for Lt. Gaeta… to help with the testing but I was refused and really, I've tried working with some of your other officers and frankly hardly any of them have any passion for their work."

" They're tired," Tigh shot back angrily. " That's why I wouldn't give you Gaeta last week. You keep him for hours and he spends the next watch half asleep. Everyone you want to use has critical work to do." Which was a gross exaggeration of the situation, but Adama let it pass. If Gaeta was falling asleep on his feet, he was just joining the majority of the crew. At least he wasn't coming on shift drunk. The problem was that Baltar dismissed or offended most of the people who tried to help him. Tigh didn't like how high handed Baltar was either, and the few other officers that passed Baltar's muster made morale much worse with their complaining. Gaeta was at least seemed to enjoy scientific work.

Or, at least he didn't complain. People who didn't complain or argue were in short supply as of late.

" Why don't I let you have Mr. Gaeta for three extra hours a week and you let him try the softer approach?" It wasn't ideal for a number of reasons, but Adama sensed that Baltar, if left to his own devices, would never find the time. " Of course, this extra time will be for this project alone." Because if it wasn't specified, he had no doubt that Baltar would keep Gaeta for longer and for different tasks. Adama wasn't surprised about that. Baltar liked an audience, that had been obvious to Adama. Gaeta liked to be an audience for Baltar, which was a problem but not a significant one. He needed someone to keep an eye on Baltar, and Adama was willing to tolerate a junior officer with a touch of hero worship since it kept him well supplied with information on Baltar's behavior. Plus, the reality was that Baltar simply wasn't very stable. The day would come when they would find Baltar hanging from a homemade noose in his quarters, Adama had no doubt of that and that the day would come sooner than later. Someone needed to be able to step up in that event. The next generation had to be taught. He hadn't consciously chosen an heir, but the fact remained that he wasn't a young man. Neither was Tigh, and the preparation had to be made early.

He also had reason to remove Baltar from at least one facet of Cylon research. He still didn't trust the man. Something just didn't feel right. He tried not to be as disdainful of Baltar's ideas as Tigh was. Tigh could be a self defeating bastard, especially when he was drinking. At the same time, he couldn't let himself put his trust in Gauis Baltar.

" Well, " Baltar began, clearly not happy about the fact that he was being gently overruled. " It's unlikely to work, regardless of who you use, but I must say… Lt. Gaeta hardly seems like the mostly likely interrogator among your men. Why not Lt. Thrace? A female is less likely to fall for any… enticement." Baltar paused. " He **is** your tactical officer and my assistant."

" Lt. Thrace can't be spared from training new pilots. She's also unlikely to recognize if the Cylon gives up useful technical data. If I had a technically capable officer to spare, who didn't work in critical areas, then I would use that person, but there's no one else. There's no pool of candidates, and we're not debating this, Doctor." After a long moment, Baltar nodded his assent, but it was clear he wasn't happy about it. He abruptly left.

" He's got a point, Bill." Tigh said as he poured himself a drink. " Gaeta isn't a deck chief or a pilot. We'll have a hell of a mess if he decides to fall in love with that thing too. And for what? Do you really think she's going to give anything up?"

"Maybe not," Adama said as he also poured a drink. " But we have to try."

"How do you make sure he doesn't get compromised?" Tigh asked as he downed his drink. " He's already a little soft on Valerii."

"Most of the crew is," Adama said softly. " I'm sure Mr. Gaeta will maintain his professional bearing." It would help that Adama had every intention of making sure that Sharon Valerii had no idea how closely she was watched. Or Lt. Gaeta for that matter.

The problem, Petty Officer Anastasia thought as she followed Lt. Gaeta to the special jail cell that Boomer the Cylon was held, wasn't that she didn't find the idea interesting, it was that she didn't think it would work. Sharon Valerii was a Cylon. She wasn't going to just start giving up information. Dee knew that. Cylons were tough. She didn't want to watch a friend metaphorically bang his head into a wall. There just weren't that many friends left

She also questioned how the commander was setting it up. It was every citizen's job to question the actions of the leader, her father had taught her that, and she had questions. She couldn't believe, for example, that the last best hope for Cylon interrogation was Felix Gaeta. He was a friend, one of her best, and she respected him, but he was clever, not hard. It took a hard man to stare into the enemy's face and pry information from them. Commander Adama was that hard, and he was sending Gaeta. She didn't understand it. Her orders were to assist Gaeta, help him set up a way to record his sessions with the Cylon, and to monitor the sessions as they took place.

What he didn't know was that his reports were going to be followed by her reports. Her reports, per the commander, would not be about Sharon. Dee wasn't sure how she felt about that. The commander had explained it as a need to make sure that whoever dealt with a Cylon was without reproach.

It made sense. It felt like a lie. And it felt like she was standing at the top of a very slippery slope, looking down. It was not a good feeling.

She didn't even want to start to think about how she was going to find three hours in the week to help interrogate a Cylon prisoner. If not more. She almost didn't want the project to be successful for the time reason alone. They did need the intelligence information. Hopefully, she thought as Gaeta ushered her into the small room that Dr. Baltar had cleared for their use, this will either work quickly or fail quickly.

The room was about the size of a closet. There was a chair, a metal table, and an overhead light. She set down her box of recording equipment. The room was filthy. So this is what I have to look forward to for months, she thought darkly. " I see Dr. Baltar went out of his way to be helpful.

Gaeta sighed. " He's still angry that he's not overseeing this project. I don't know why… He doesn't have time to finish any of the projects I'm helping him with. I thought he would have pleased…."

It was moments like that when Dualla wished Gaeta wasn't an officer. Or that she was, or that they both could stop taking the fraternization rules so seriously. He was too highly ranked for her to get him drunk and tell him to get over his weird little unrequited crush on Dr. Baltar. It was obvious to her that Baltar was pissed off that Adama was attempting to place a colonial officer into the role of scientific advisor. Dr. Baltar wasn't above being jealous, which Gaeta never saw because he was too starry eyed over being able to work with Baltar. Changing the subject was just easier. " You know, he's probably just tired. What are you cutting out in order to do this?"

" It was a tough call but I decided that sleep was for the weak." He started to help her set up the recording equipment. " How about you? This must be cutting into your dating time."

"Don't start," she warned good naturedly. Who she was dating was somehow the hottest topic among the CIC folks.

" Don't take out your frustration on me, I'm not one of your boyfriends." He picked the headset and put it on. " So let's make sure this works."

She put on her own head set and plugged in to the recorder. " The tape lasts for an hour and half. Can you hear me?"

He winced. " It's really loud. How old is this stuff?"

" The earpiece is at least as old as the Galactica. It can turn down." She played it back and could hear their conversation. " It's working. What are you planning, sir?"

He shrugged and ran a hand through his short hair. She was struck suddenly by how tired he looked. " I'm going to attempt to talk to Sharon and see if she will give up all of her secret Cylon info just for the pleasure of talking to me. I don't think this is going to work. I don't think Sharon ever liked me to begin with. But someone has to try." He left the room, to head down to the holding cell, leaving Dualla alone with her thoughts.

He still thinks of her as Sharon, Dualla thought as she flipped on the recorder. That was not a good sign.


	2. Chapter 2

The special cell was well lit. It surprised him for some reason. Battlestars of the same class as the Galactica were notorious for being dimly lit. He understood the reasons behind it, better than most on the ship. The lighting was designed to be efficient, to keep the most space lit with the least amount of energy. That way, the ship's energy could be diverted to more important things like the weapon batteries and the flight deck. In theory, the light frequency was adjusted so that everyone got enough necessary vitamin D. Gaeta knew it was probably true, but he didn't feel it. He longed to feel sunlight on his skin, and fresh air. He had been on the Galactica for three years with his last shore leave planetside nine months before the holocaust. It was a long time to go without a few days of fun in the sun. He had planned to take almost a month of accumulated leave once the Galactica was decommissioned, and spend the entire time sailing around Caprica's beaches with some friends, baking in the sun to recharge for the next assignment.

Now, Caprica's beaches were so much radioactive glass and he couldn't even remember what it was like to walk on something other than hard deck plating. Worse, he was jealous that the Cylon prisoner had a cheerier place to live than he did. Bigger too. It even felt less dank. The real hazard on a ship the Galactica's age was the humidity and temperature systems functioning at less than optimal levels. The temperature was kept low, and things like showers and laundry lost moisture no matter how efficient they were. Add in the increasingly large number of people who were using the end of civilization as an excuse to stop bathing, and the Galactica smelled like a dirty, moldy gym locker.

Do your job, he told himself as he took a seat in the hard metal chair that had been placed in front of the glass divider. The commander wasn't expecting miracles, he had said as much in the mission briefing. Any information would help, even if it was simple insight into how Cylons thought. He plugged his headset into the wall phone and tapped the glass. Dr. Baltar was supposed to have informed Sharon of the new rules but it wouldn't shock him to discover that the scientist had conveniently forgotten.

Sharon stepped over and took a seat. She looked annoyed with him as she picked up the headset that had been installed for her. " Whose idiot idea was this? Yours?"

Yeah, this will be productive, he thought tiredly. " No, it wasn't. I take it that Dr. Baltar has explained the new rules concerning visitation?" The new rules amounted to no visitors at all unless Sharon agreed to submit to three one hour sessions a week with him.

" I don't have to talk to you, I just have to sit here." She smirked at him.

It clicked with him suddenly that she had come to the head set pretty quickly for someone who wasn't planning to talk. " Same here." He leaned back in the chair. He had a feeling he was right. If he was wrong, well then he got a few minutes to sit quietly. Sitting quietly was a rare pleasure, much like eating a decent meal or getting a hot shower. A day with all three hadn't happened in a long time.

After about ten minutes, she started tapping her fingers. He ignored it. He hadn't known Sharon Valerii that well before the colonies were destroyed. He had gotten to know her better after, and he was willing to admit he had been completely fooled. He still had nightmares about shaking her hand and watching her gun the commander down. It was a memory that still had the power to make him shake when he thought about it too much. He didn't like the fact that Helo professed to be in love with her, or that it was obvious that Chief Tyrol still had feelings for her, despite the reality that the Sharon sitting in front of him was not the one who had been having the torrid affair with the chief. He didn't want to be sitting inches from a Cylon who had betrayed all of the things he believed in as an officer of the fleet.

But an officer of the fleet followed lawful orders, and unlike so many of his compatriots, he couldn't figure out a good reason to say no. There were any number of reasons why he didn't want to be there. He barely had time to breathe without adding extra duty to his day. He hadn't known Sharon that well, but he hadn't disliked her. He couldn't help but remember the reports of what had gone on with the Pegasus and he didn't want any part of that kind of activity.

But mostly he was just tired and it was becoming clear that the special brig was definitely warmer than his quarters. His eyelids started to droop. The beach, he thought, that would be nice. Sand under his feet, a salty tang in the air. He inhaled deeply.

" Are you sleeping?" He jerked upright. Sharon was staring at him, obviously amused. She crossed her arms. " Aren't you supposed to be the ship master interrogator?" She snickered.

He rubbed his face, biding for time to think of his next move. He knew next to nothing about interrogation but it had to be a good sign that she had cracked first. Even if he had been falling asleep. Finally he said, " I'm just the person willing to do this. And I'm tired. I have to work. You said you weren't going to talk. Why shouldn't I get some rest?"

" Nice to see you taking your duty so seriously. I always thought you were such a grind, running around the CIC acting like the commander's lap dog." She laughed.

" I always thought you were nice. A little boring maybe, and pretty dumb to get so wrapped up with Chief Tyrol." He rolled his eyes. " We **all** knew about the chief and you."

She glared at him. " Don't call me dumb. You're the stupid one. I'm not that Sharon."

" I know. What puzzles me is how you even know who I am." He waited for a response. He had read the reports about the other cylons and about this Sharon as well. " Well? I think we've been face to face maybe once since you came aboard this ship. So how do you know I'm a grind and the commander's lap dog? How do you know anything about me?"

Her eyes narrowed. Score one for me, Gaeta thought with no small sense of satisfaction. For the rest of the hour, they stared at each other without a word being said.

Dualla yawned. If every session was going to be three minutes of conversation and fifty seven minutes of quiet even breathing, she was probably going to start falling asleep herself. She shivered a little as the air scrubbers came on. The areas of the ship that weren't living quarters weren't heated to the same levels. It didn't make much difference when she was doing her usual job because she kept busy, but sitting for an hour in a dank dirty closet had her chilled to the bone. She was about to signal Gaeta that it was time to quit when the commander entered the room. She stood up. "Commander Adama, sir"

" At ease, Dee." He looked around the small room, taking it all in with a glance. She knew that the commander had no love at all for Dr. Baltar and he was just adding the dirty room to the pile of things that worried him about the doctor. He gestured to the recorder. " Where did you find that?"

" In the museum storage locker," she answered. " There's a lot of still serviceable equipment there." And Gaeta had been unable to get one of the newer recorders that didn't use archaic technology from Dr. Baltar, but she sensed that she didn't need to mention it.

"Hmm a good idea," Adama said after a moment. " I don't think we took inventory there beyond the Vipers and parts for the Vipers." He waited, clearly expecting something.

She hit the button that signaled Gaeta's headset. " We just finished. She hardly spoke at all. She got mad when Lt. Gaeta tricked her into admitting she had some shared memories with the other Sharon."

Adama smiled slightly, which she didn't understand. They already knew that Cylons could share some memories. On the other hand, she had to admit that she was surprised that the Cylon had said anything. It wasn't like Gaeta was beating her. Falling asleep in a chair was hardly intimidating.

They both jumped when the hatch door opened and Gaeta stepped in. He snapped to attention. " Sir, I didn't realize you were coming down… I don't have a report ready yet."

" I'm not looking for an official report," Adama said easily. Dualla tried not to smile. The commander had a way of handling people that bordered on fatherly. She wondered if he realized it or if it was unintentional. He gestured for Gaeta to close the hatch. " I want your impressions. Do you think this will work? Or are we wasting time that could be better spent somewhere else?"

In an instant, Dualla realized that Gaeta was flushed with excitement. She had seen that look from him before, when he was working a particularly difficult problem, or when he was doing something technical. He liked problems. Working on something intricate and detailed and difficult was something that deep down Gaeta liked. No matter that he had accomplished nothing with the Cylon, he was forming ideas on new ideas to try to get the Cylon to talk.

Which meant she was going to spend more time sitting in a cold dingy closet. A lot more time. She stifled a sigh.

" I think it went well, sir. I didn't learn anything new but I didn't expect to in the first session." Gaeta paused. " I think it's going to take some time."

" I'll expect a full report by next watch." With that, Adama left.

Dualla waited for the door to close before she said, with a smile on her face" You fell asleep, sir."

He nodded, and smiled back. " I did. But I got her to talk first. Now I just have to figure out how to get her to talk about something useful."

Oh yeah, Dualla thought tiredly, this was going to involve a lot of time and banging heads into walls before he got tired of it.


	3. Chapter 3

The coffee was awful. Ship coffee was notoriously bad, but the muddy brown liquid in his cup even smelled bad. He suspected that the grounds had been reused one too many times, but that was just how it was. He was just glad he had been able to get a cup for himself and for Dualla. He knew Dualla found monitoring his conversations with the Cylon boring at best. He appreciated her help. A cup of bad coffee was small thanks. Especially such a bad cup of coffee.

Gaeta stepped into the small room and was taken back by the sudden reek of disinfectant. He coughed. Dualla, who was spraying cleanser on the chair, looked up. She was upset.

" I'm sorry, sir," she said as she wiped the chair with a cleaning rag. " I just couldn't stand it any more. I couldn't sit here and look at the inch of grime that coats everything in here. All I can think when I sit here is that the mold on the floor must be plotting with the weird green goo on the far wall to kill me."

" I thought the green goo was on our side. Now the blue mold that was in the corner, that was starting to scare me." He held out one of the cups of coffee. " I brought you coffee. It's not very good, but it's hot."

"Thank you sir." She took the coffee and sipped it, and made a face. " Oh gods, that's awful. I thought the coffee would be better in the officer's mess… At least it's hot." She sighed. " I miss good coffee."

He sighed as well. " So do I. With cream and sugar…" All of the sugar supply was under lock and key, and carefully rationed. Cream, even the powdered kind, was in even shorter supply and being conserved for the few children in the fleet.

Dualla visibly shook off her mood and took a seat. " So are you planning to try something new this time?" She began to ready the recorder as she spoke.

He shrugged. " I thought I might suggest a new theory on why she's pregnant." It had been rolling around in his head for a while. He hoped it would be upsetting to Sharon. He hadn't had much luck since the first session. Sharon generally made rude remarks about him and was otherwise silent. They had done five sessions so far and he was beginning to think that he might not succeed. He didn't want that. He had made enough mistakes on the job that he didn't want another failure added to the list. " I don't know if it will work but it's better than just sitting there."

" Well, good hunting, sir." Dee said, smiling slightly. She held up her cup and he saluted her with his cup. He was glad that she wasn't mad about getting stuck with extra duty. He didn't worry much about Sharon breaking down the glass and metal barrier between them and trying to kill him, but the reality was that it was possible. With Dualla listening, he never worried that he was seconds from death.

He strode down the hall, hot, rancid cup of coffee in hand. He hoped the grounds it had been made with had left some residual caffeine in the bitter, watery mixture. It was a nasty mess to choke down and without the caffeine, he was torturing himself for nothing.

Sharon was waiting for him. After the first session, she was always waiting for him, even though she rarely spoke to him. It made him think that there was a way in. His newest idea was more desperation than anything else. It might work. He plugged in his head set. " Hello, Sharon."

"Hello, Lt. Gaeta." She rolled her eyes at him and gestured to the cup of coffee. " Is this your latest attempt to keep awake?"

He let it roll off and took a long sip of the coffee, hoping that he made it look a lot better than it was. " It's just coffee."

" I'm not allowed coffee," Sharon sniffed.

He knew that. The commander refused to waste luxury supplies on prisoners. There was another reason though, and it was his way in. " The caffeine is bad for the baby."

She tossed her hair back. " What do you care about my baby?" Her eyes bored holes into him. " Don't you want to lock it up in a cage and study it?"

He set down the cup of coffee and leaned back in his chair. " It's just a baby. Once it's born, it doesn't matter who the parents are." He let himself smile.

Sharon glared at him. " You know the baby is special. It will be half human and half Cylon."

"Which is complete nonsense," he said easily. " You aren't discernibly alien, Sharon. Haven't you ever wondered about the implications of your pregnancy?" He had, although he hadn't shared his ideas with Dr. Baltar. Not his recent ideas anyway. Dr. Baltar hadn't been very receptive as of late, and tended to dismiss ideas that he didn't personally generate. " What being pregnant by a human has to mean?"

She looked puzzled. " I don't see what you're getting at." There was a note of interest in her voice. " Helo and I love each other, that's why we were able to have a baby even though I am a Cylon."

" Love has nothing to do with making babies," he said in a chiding tone. " You had to frak Helo to get pregnant. Emotional love does not involve sperm and eggs. Unless you want to change the whole baby making story to some sort of metaphysical thing where you were never touched by a human man. But I don't think that's the case. You two made this baby the old fashioned way, and yet you profess to be ignorant of simple biological facts."

" And what facts are you talking about?" Sharon said, her tone dangerous.

" Let's use an example," Gaeta said brightly. " No matter how much a dog and a cat might **love** each other, they won't perform a sex act on each other unless forced. That forced pairing will never result in baby crossbreeds unless one of the animals is genetically modified and even then the success rate is unlikely to make it a viable reproductive method. Even in species that are very closely related, the offspring of hybridization is almost always sterile. You may have a baby, but your baby will most likely not be able to breed, which puts all this nonsense about God telling you to be fruitful in question. Unless…" He sipped his coffee and waited.

" Unless what?" she asked after a long moment.

" Unless you aren't a Cylon. Then it makes perfect sense that you and Helo are having a baby… but again, that means your baby is no more special than anyone else's." Gaeta stopped. It wasn't an idea that he would share out with some of the people on board, but it was a valid theory. Certainly as valid as believing that love could overcome the genetic incompatibility of two distinctly different species.

It was working, too. Sharon was completely taken back. He could see that she was considering it, and not liking how it made sense. Finally, she leaned forward and said softly, " Maybe you should be my lawyer, Gaeta. You could argue that I've been framed, that I'm really an innocent human who just happens to be able to communicate directly with Cylon raiders by happenstance."

He grinned. " You aren't innocent, Sharon. You just aren't a Cylon in the strictest sense of the word." He tried not to let it please him too much that she was getting angry. Getting her to talk was just the first step. The hard part was getting useful information from her. "Haven't you ever considered this possibility before?"

Her eyes glared daggers at him. " You're an idiot."

"You are a human being." Gaeta leaned forward, his expression intent. " The Cylons obviously know quite a bit about humanity. With their technological abilities and without the restraints that our government placed on cloning and genetic manipulation, they could have easily made themselves some willing human stooges. Add the religious mysticism into the mix and no wonder you think you're a toaster."

"Oh really? How do you explain my using the fiber optic cable to signal the Cylon fleet?" she asked.

It was a good question, one that he had wondered about. " Two possibilities exist. First, you may have miniaturized computer chips embedded in your body, something too small to be scanned. You obviously weren't raised among humans, and I have to assume that there's been some genetic enhancement as well. The fiber optic cable touches the chips and your nervous system can transmit the signal. It's technology the colonies had, although it was used differently. Until it was banned after the first Cylon war. The second possible answer is that you do have a fiber optic port in your body and were taught how to transmit directly by thinking about it. That's another technology our society banned." He gestured expansively. " Given the proper equipment, you could teach me or anyone else to do the same thing."

" I doubt that." Still, he could see that she was unsettled by the idea. Her fingers drummed nervously on the desktop. " What's your first name, Gaeta?"

" Don't you know?" He sensed a trick. She was trying to divert him.

Sharon shook her head. " You're a bit secretive. Actually you're very secretive. I know hardly anything about you."

"Maybe you should try accessing the other Sharon's memories," he suggested brightly.

"Maybe I have, and maybe that wasn't very helpful," she shot right back. " Or maybe not. Is your first name a secret?"

" It's Felix. It's not a secret. I just don't use my first name very much." He wondered why she was so curious.

And she clearly was curious. " Why not? It's not a bad name."

" It's old fashioned."

" No, I don't think that's why." Sharon pondered it a few moments and then grinned. " You got teased in school. By little kids, and at the Academy by the pilot jocks. You must love the last name only culture here."

The problem was that she was right. " Everything has its pluses and minuses." The timer that Dualla had rigged went off in his ear. " Our time is up for today."

" How sad for us," Sharon said darkly. She watched as he stood up and then said, " You know, maybe you and I aren't so different. Ever think about that?"

" Yes. I wouldn't be here if I didn't." Gaeta tried not to look too pleased. His theory was bothering her. That was exactly what he wanted. If Sharon started to see herself as human, then she would be more willing to give up technical information that he could use to make weapons.

She smiled secretively. " I don't think you've thought hard enough about it, Lt. Gaeta."


	4. Chapter 4

Baltar often wondered if he had died in the nuclear blast back on Caprica. He had a rich imagination, rich enough that if he was truly insane, he would have come up with something a lot less boring than the endless drudgery that was life on the Galactica. No, he was dead and being punished, that much was certain. That certainly explained the remaining 46,000 blood tests he had to process. It also explained why his lovely Cylon guide was casually fondling his assistant.

It especially explained why his assistant didn't seem to notice that she was fondling him as he worked on one of Baltar's tests. Of course, she is doing it to taunt me, Baltar reasoned as he watched his female nemesis rub herself up against Lt. Gaeta.

He shook it off. Ignoring her was usually a poor decision but she didn't want him to be caught. If he reacted to her, then Gaeta would be suspicious. The absolute last thing he needed was for his assistant, who conveniently doubled as his military watchdog, to get suspicious. He prided himself on making sure that Gaeta wasn't suspicious.

"So, Lt. Gaeta, how is your little project going?" As much as it galled him to have any facet of research taken from him, he had to admit that he just didn't have time to hand hold Sharon Valerii and beg her for hints about the Cylons. He didn't need to. He supposed that it was a fine project for a scientific beginner like Gaeta, but he didn't expect it to be fruitful.

Gaeta looked up from the microscope, clearly pleased to be asked. " It's going well, Dr. Baltar.

Six, he couldn't think of her by the name she had used on Caprica, leaned over Gaeta's shoulder and smiled wryly. " Try not to be too jealous, Gauis. Your little friend is saving you from hours of drudgery."

Hours of drudgery, yes. But if Gaeta was successful…. Baltar wondered if she realized just how precarious his position really was. Neither the president or the commander really trusted him. Gaeta already had some successes under his belt. A few more successes and Baltar didn't have any illusions about how his comfortable position would collapse. Sure he would still be vice president but he sensed that Commander Adama would prefer to have one of his officers in charge of the scientific research into the nature of Cylons.

" Have you made any headway?" he asked after a moment. He wanted to ask if Gaeta noticed that Six was running her hands through his hair but he knew how badly that question would be received.

"Some…" Gaeta said. He looked up from the blood test he was working on. " I think I got her to start thinking about her own identity as a Cylon versus being human. I had a theory about the human appearing Cylons that I shared with her. It might make her more willing to give us information."

Six licked her lips and ran her hands down Gaeta's body. " He has a **theory**, Gauis. Do ask him about it. I always enjoy watching humans go on about what they can't possibly understand." Her fondling grew more rigorous. Baltar found himself growing aroused at the sight of his lover touching his stoic, shy assistant. He wondered what the two of them would be like in bed, with him watching and possibly even making suggestions…

" Dr. Baltar?"

Baltar snapped back to the unpleasant reality of the lab. Gaeta was staring at him, with concern on his face. Six was conveniently absent. Gaeta gestured to himself, obviously puzzled.

" Is there something wrong with how I look? You're… staring at me." He brushed his uniform jacket.

" No no," Baltar said quickly. " I was just…"

" Wondering what his theory is," Six suddenly whispered in his ear, her breath hot upon his skin.

" Wondering… wondering your theory was, that it would jar a Cylon into helping us." Baltar stuttered out. It would have to be good. The Cylons he knew didn't generally find much about humanity threatening. " Come on, now, tell me about this theory." He sat down, and gestured for Gaeta to sit as well.

" It **is** just a theory," Gaeta began, his eyes suddenly bright with excitement. Baltar was envious again. He could remember the vitally alive feeling that exploring an idea used to bring him. As of late, all of his thinking had been done while in a high state of terror. He missed the sheer fun of having ideas, and having time to explore those ideas.

Gaeta gestured to one of the computers. " I was curious because while we have a lot of reports about the Cylons that appear human having super strength, but if you really read those reports, they aren't doing anything outside the high end of human norms…." As Gaeta explained his idea that human appearing Cylons were nothing more than brainwashed human clones, Baltar found himself intrigued.

" So just by cleaning up the human genome, the Cylons get willing human conspirators who appear smarter and stronger…" He considered that for a moment. It **was** intriguing.

" And since they are raised in a wholly Cylon environment, they believe they're Cylons." Gaeta tapped the table with his fingers. " That makes the baby Sharon is carrying as human as you or I."

" How dare he blaspheme God's chosen one," Six hissed. She glared at Baltar, inches away an explosion, he knew that from experience. The best thing was to appease her and keep his own interest a secret. The theory did explain quite a bit. Much was made of the Cylon strength, but there were too many reports that also involved humans defeating the human appearing Cylons. Commander Adama, hardly a young man, had beaten one to death. It was interesting. And he couldn't appear too enthused.

" It's only interesting if you can prove it," Baltar said in what he hoped was a wise, sage-like tone. Gaeta was one of the few people on the Galactica who respected him. He didn't want to ruin that. It was useful having a conduit to the commander. " Unfortunately, we don't have enough data to even get started on proving it. We've got one live Cylon and two dead ones. That won't give you enough data to prove the theory."

Gaeta nodded. " It is just a theory, and I know we don't have enough examples of the human appearing Cylons to prove anything, but Sharon doesn't know that. If I can convince her that she isn't really a Cylon, then she might give up some of the technical data on the Cylon virus. She was startled by the idea, I could see it on her face."

" And the Sharon models aren't very smart," Six muttered. " Of course, your little pet student is smarter. Perhaps his genome was cleaned up. Have you ever really tested Lt. Gaeta, Gauis?"

" No, you're right," Baltar said nervously. " If you can get anything out of Valerii using this theory, you should use it. But, I must say, I think I have kept you far too long." He wanted Gaeta out of the lab before he rechecked the testing results.

" I do have watch soon," Gaeta said tiredly. " I probably won't have any time to help you for the next few days."

" That's quite all right," Baltar said easily. He quickly ushered Gaeta to the door. " Do let me know how your idea pans out." He closed the hatch door and spun around to face Six. " Just what the hell are you suggesting?"

Six snickered at him. " What's the matter, Gauis? **Haven't** you tested the young lieutenant? Mind you, I think I would have recalled seeing him at the Cylon cloning factory that he thinks we all come from, but perhaps you should keep a closer eye on him." She began to casually undress.

At least, Baltar thought before he succumbed to her charms once again, Gaeta's little theory got her angry enough to stop teasing me with him.


	5. Chapter 5

Dualla struggled to keep her mind on the conversation she was listening to. She wasn't interested in computers or math or how Cylons programmed viruses. She had the impression that Sharon Valerii wasn't intensely interested either. " You've got about ten minutes left," she whispered into the microphone, " You probably want to back off a little now." When the session had been productive, Sharon usually rudely cut off the conversation when the time was up. It made the next session difficult to start. But, if she gave Gaeta enough warning, then he could naturally close the discussion and let Sharon make a few jibes about the generally crappy state of his life. It was a weird tactic but it worked, and after a while the jabs just got amusing. There were only so many comments on the food and the living conditions that could be made, and Gaeta was too polite or too into getting Sharon's cooperation to point out that he was living and eating better than she was.

At least, Dualla hoped, they should be living better than a prisoner, but Sharon was pregnant and got better rations. It was enough to make Dualla consider skipping the mandatory birth control pills.

" This has been very productive. I appreciate the assistance." Gaeta said. Dualla often thought he wasn't dominant enough in the discussion but she didn't know a nice way to say that to him. And she wasn't sure it would help. He was getting information on how Cylons made their devastating viruses. He was in charge of the project, it wasn't really her place to judge what he did as long as he was producing positive results. She just didn't like that he was so nice to the Cylon. It felt like a bad move, and she usually trusted her instincts on such things.

" You really never think, do you, Felix?" Sharon's voice rolled with disgust. " Don't you ever listen to anything I say to you? I have to sit and listen to you go on and on about things that a mentally deficient human would be insulted by, and you never listen to a word I say."

That was new, Dualla thought with surprise. Sharon certainly never had a problem insulting Gaeta and insulting Gaeta was a pretty rich topic to mine. His listening skills were not something that ever had come into question.

" What's that supposed to mean?" Gaeta asked. He didn't sound angry. Then again, Dualla reasoned, he was pretty used to the insult game.

" Look, it's obvious that you have no idea what I have really been saying to you." Sharon's voice took on an ugly edge. " Let me give you a giant hint. Remember that time that the other Sharon tried to kill Commander Adama?"

Dualla could hear Gaeta take a deep breath. " Yes," he said after a long moment, " It isn't something that's easy to forget." Dualla agreed silently. She still had nightmares about that day. She had been the one who had to help Gaeta clean the commander's blood off the dradis console. It wasn't something that was easy to forget at all.

" You shook the other Sharon's hand. Don't you ever wonder about that?" Dualla could hear the spite in Sharon's voice. " You shook her hand and she immediately shot the commander. Haven't you ever wondered about that? Seems a little suspicious."

And that wasn't going to happen, not on her watch. " The session is over," Dualla whispered urgently. It was a few minutes off to be honest, but she wasn't going to let Gaeta listen to that for five more minutes. He was a friend, and she wasn't going to let some Cylon make nasty suggestions, nasty suggestions that weren't true. She remembered that day as well as anyone and there was nothing suspicious about what Gaeta had done. He had shaken Boomer's hand because she had destroyed a Cylon basestar and saved their lives. Dualla had wanted to shake her hand and kiss both her and Racetrack for saving their lives. There was nothing suspicious about what Gaeta had done. She knew he had spent more than enough time, in her opinion, pondering his actions that day. There was no reason to let a Cylon get her hooks in that way.

Sharon continued on. " Don't look so shocked. The other Sharon didn't know what she was doing most of the time. She was in deep cover. I don't think she had any idea that the plan was for her to kill Commander Adama. What did you do to her?"

There was a long pause. Finally Gaeta said softly, " Don't you know?"

Sharon laughed. " Nicely played, Lt. Gaeta. I think we're done for the day."

Dualla waited until she heard the tell tale click of the headset being pulled from the hook up in the special cell to stop the tape. She started to rewind the tape, knowing that the commander would ask for it by the next watch and that Gaeta would want a copy as well for replay while he tried to work on his anti-Cylon virus program. Her stomach was sour and it felt like butterflies were rioting inside her. I didn't like that, she thought suddenly, I didn't like how that went at all.

She didn't like how Gaeta looked either. He stepped through the hatch into the small room looking paler than when he had left. He wasn't as pleased as he should have been considering all the math and tech talk he had managed to draw Sharon into. No, his mood had been spoiled by the last few minutes. He took a seat at the shiny table and leaned back tiredly. " So let's debrief."

They had started having a debriefing between the two of them after the first few sessions. It was a way to unwind, to get out of the mentality of interrogator and handler versus prisoner. At first, she had needed it more. Her conscious was still bothering over giving Adama reports on Gaeta, and the few minutes to talk after each session assured her that she wasn't doing anything wrong. Lately though, it was as though when they talked about Sharon, they put rank aside and talked like two people sharing a problem. It was… nice. Like talking about a tough homework assignment, as an equal partner.

It made what she was about to say a lot easier.

" You shouldn't let her go off on tangents about whether or not you are some sort of Cylon sleeper agent. It's not a good idea." At the very least it would concern Commander Adama. She didn't relish putting a positive spin on the conversation. The commander was worried about spies, angry about them, and wasn't very forgiving to those who sympathized with Cylons.

" She's trying to get a rise out of me," Gaeta said after a moment. " If I flip out or get angry or refuse to play along, then she'll refuse to play along. Once she stops talking, then that's it. We're all back to the beginning. And we're getting really good information. I can use what she told me about the Cylon virus to try and back engineer something that can do real damage to the Raiders." He blinked tiredly.

" It doesn't bother you at all that she all but said that you told the other Sharon to kill the commander." It bothered Dualla, she wasn't afraid to let that show. All that little accusation needed to do was get out and Gaeta would be on the black list just like Tyrol and Helo. Under suspicion. The commander didn't approve of it, but that didn't make the shunning any easier to bear.

" This Sharon has no idea what happened." His face took on that intensely interested caste she had come to recognize as the sign that he was coming up with something unique. That wasn't a bad thing, she knew that Gaeta having a clever or unique idea was usually a good thing, but she worried that it overrode his survival instincts. He started to tap the table repetitively. " They say that their memories upload when they die, but we don't know that it's really true. This Sharon had no idea that the commander had been shot until after Helo and Starbuck brought her back to the fleet. So she's just guessing I shook her hand."

The finger tapping got faster. She wondered if it was a way to make it less obvious that he was upset. Or to make it less obvious that his hands were shaking. It was bothering him, but she didn't know what to say. Finally she said softly, " We all wanted to shake her hand. You didn't do anything that I wasn't wanting to do."

" Do you know," Gaeta said as he rubbed his eyes, " I sometimes wish that I could have that moment back just so I could punch her in the face instead of shaking her damn hand."

" You'd have ended up in the brig." Dualla laughed. It was kind of funny. She doubted Gaeta had ever even seen the brig of the Galactica before the colonies had been destroyed. She also doubted he had ever contemplated punching anyone in the face before the colonies had been destroyed.

" Seems like all the cool kids get thrown in the brig these days. Maybe I can still get in on the mutiny action." He laughed. It had a slightly hysteric edge to it. " At least I'd get some time off."

" No, Col. Tigh would bring your work to you." It was funny because it true.

Gaeta rose to his feet. " I've got approximately four hours left before I go on duty again. I am going to try to get some sleep. How about you?"

"I have plans to sleep with someone else, sir, but thank you." Dualla couldn't resist.

It brought a smile to his face. He mimed being shot in the heart. " You're killing me, Petty Officer Dualla. I'm shattered."

She laughed again but let her expression grow a little more serious. " Don't let her get in your head, sir. She's designed to make you doubt yourself."

" Don't worry, Dee." He smiled again. " I'm too tired to think of anything other than sleep right now. Sleep and Cylon viruses."

The problem, Dualla thought as she watched him leave, was that he really wasn't the sort to stop thinking once the seed had been planted. She sighed. It was going to make her own report that much more difficult.


	6. Chapter 6

Felix Gaeta found himself flashing back to his school days as he juggled a notebook, a textbook on designing computer defenses and a tray of food in the officer's mess hall. There was never enough time to do anything and he had taken to using mealtimes as time to read over his notes or try to get a handle on ways to increase the Galactica's defenses. It wasn't like dinner was really something to savor. He looked at his plate sadly. Some sort of stew, a few misshapen vegetables, grayish bread and some sort of goopy sweet goo that was masquerading as pudding. It wasn't appetizing, no matter how hungry he was, but food was food and not eating meant that the offender ended up on report. He didn't have time to be on report. He sat down at an empty table and did his best to ignore the rising chatter. Apparently the latest rumor involved Kat and some group of knuckle draggers and he just didn't need the distraction. No one was that double jointed anyway. He opened his book.

" Don't tell me you have homework now," Kara Thrace said as she set down her tray at his table. " Did the commander give you a book report to do?" She snickered.

He sighed, and closed the book. He knew that tone of voice. Kara was in the mood to be chatty and if he didn't cave, she would just get more obnoxious. He didn't feel like being her target for the next couple of days until she went back to mocking the next class of nuggets. " I'm researching computer viruses. I want to see if we could replicate the trick that they pulled on us."

" It makes shooting them a lot easier but it really takes the challenge away." Kara offered. " The rumor mill says you've been ensnared by the wily charms of our Cylon prisoner. Is that true? Is her baby really yours?" Kara waited expectantly.

" Who is saying **that**?" he asked with surprise.

" Well, I was…." Kara laughed at him. " Seriously, we all know you're the poor bastard who got elected to the post of head interrogator. People are gonna talk. I figure a few new rumors might be fun."

" So suggesting I'm having intercourse with a Cylon is your idea of improving morale?" He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

" It seemed more plausible than the whole adventure in double jointedness that Kat is trying to pass off as the truth." Kara winked at him. " I'm just teasing you, Gaeta. You ought to know that people do know what you're doing though."

"It isn't a secret," Gaeta said. " I think everyone knows that I've been helping Dr. Baltar with Cylon research. I just can't discuss what I do while drinking over cards." Which meant cutting out drinking and card playing but it wasn't much of a sacrifice considering how rarely he had time for it anyway.

" Right, but you might consider that your Cylon prisoner does get visitors. And she's been telling her visitors what an asshole you've been." Kara leaned back in her chair. "Now, I know you can be an asshole, and kind of a prissy martinet while we're on the topic, but I find it hard to believe that you have made a pregnant woman cry for hours."

Gaeta blinked. " She's a Cylon, not a pregnant woman, and I have never seen her cry. I've never laid a hand on her. I'm not even allowed to go into her cell. Commander Adama made it very clear that I am never to have physical contact with the Cylon prisoner because he doesn't want a repeat of the previous situation." It made him angry that anyone would suggest such a thing, even a Cylon.

" Hey, don't flip out on me!" Kara held up her hands in protest. " For what it's worth, I don't think you're the sort that resorts to committing rape on females. But from what Helo has been saying, you did make her cry. Apparently your little theory on her baby really upsets her. I'm not surprised. What I know about Cylons? Is that they take this "God wants us to make babies" stuff pretty seriously, and telling her that her baby isn't special is well… a bit insulting to a Cylon. Upsetting even."

" Good." Gaeta reopened his book, hoping Kara would take the hint. " It's not supposed to be a lot of fun for her. It's also not like she isn't spending our time together scoring points off me constantly, so why don't you tell Helo that the next time he asks?"

Kara stared at him for a moment. He tried to ignore it, but he couldn't concentrate on the text. " What? Why are you staring at me?"

" She's getting to you." Kara said it matter of factly. " You know, Cylons love getting into your head. Let me guess, she's been suggesting that people around you are Cylons. Probably the commander, maybe some trusted ally like your pal Dr. Baltar, and now you're turning over all the weird things that have happened in your head, wondering if it is an indicator that they're Cylons. Am I right?"

He closed the book again. " No, you're not right." He hadn't meant to sound surly or angry but he realized he must have as Kara recoiled from him. She seemed startled, if just for a moment, and then her face lit up with understanding.

" She said that you're a Cylon, didn't she?" Kara snickered as he looked down. " She **did**! And you're exactly the sort that would run with that. Let me guess, you've been rethinking every single action you've taken over the last few months, haven't you?"

No, he though to himself, just one. But her comment suddenly opened up a whole new area to speculate about. " No, not really," he said finally.

She seemed to consider that for a moment. " I know how to solve your problem, Gaeta. Let's go frak." She licked her lips.

"Um, what?" It wasn't that it didn't appeal to him, he just didn't see her logic. " How… how would that help?"

" You need to relax. Besides, the rumor mill says that when a Cylon orgasms, their spines glow red. I could check for that."

The problem was that he was tempted and not just for the offer of free, uncommitted sex. He'd heard the glowing spine rumor too, although it seemed unlikely. It just seemed… unprofessional… to accept her offer. " Maybe later? I appreciate the offer…"

Kara laughed again. " You **really** need to relax, Gaeta. I'll find you when the time is right." With that she started to eat. Clearly she was done talking.

What the hell, he thought as he picked at his dinner. He had no idea what had prompted that conversation but it was intriguing. And tempting. And had taken his mind off his problems for a few minutes. Still, he couldn't help but wait for the other shoe to drop.

Another tray of food was slapped down onto the table. He looked up to see Helo towering over him. Of course, he thought tiredly, it always happens this way. It was like a bad flashback to high school. If it all went according to past history, he'd get tossed into a locker at some point.

"We need to talk," Helo said. He managed to say it without too much implied menace but the threat was there. Kara also looked up, and she had her innocent expression going full force. Helo sat down across from him and glared. " You need to back off Sharon."

" I have orders that say otherwise," Gaeta said calmly. He had no intention of backing down. He outranked Helo. He had orders. They weren't in school and they weren't children so he didn't worry that he was about to be beaten up. He didn't worry much, anyway.

" Frak your orders," Helo said darkly. " What, do you get off on making a pregnant woman cry? Does it make you hot?"

" Frak my orders? Frak you, Helo." He managed to keep his voice down, but he could see he had Helo's attention. " In case you missed the briefing, we're at war with the Cylons. In fact, we're running like scared rabbits because of the Cylons. I have orders. I will carry them out, because I know what side I'm on."

" Are you saying I don't?" Helo said quietly.

" Yes. You're in love with her. You don't have any perspective when it comes to her. She's one of them." Too late Gaeta realized that his volume had crept up to where everyone was listening. " Did you really think you could bring her back and we would all just give her a hug? Do you have any idea how obscene that is? I shook that bitch's hand right before she plugged the commander in the chest. I had to clean the commander's blood off my workstation, and you're telling me to go frak my orders?"

Helo stood up and grabbed Gaeta by his uniform jacket. " Why don't you shut your frakking mouth before I do it for you? I'm not a traitor."

" Then why don't you want the Cylon to be interrogated?" It occurred to Gaeta that he was seconds away from being hammered, but that was all overlaid by hot, lightening flashes of anger. " Why are you about to hit me when you have no idea whether she's even telling the truth? What, does it make **you** hot to toss someone around that's half your size? Why don't you ask your little toaster why she's been crying? I'll yell you why, she's worried her baby just might be all human and as the baby's father, you ought to consider why that makes her so frakking sad? It's because she doesn't want a human baby, Helo. She's on their side!"

Helo looked stunned for a moment. Kara quickly jumped in and pulled them apart. " Hey kids, the colonel has a rule about fighting in the lunchroom. Helo, sit down." She turned to Gaeta. " We'll talk later but for now, you better go."

He grabbed his books and left. The only positive thing was that he hadn't been punched.


	7. Chapter 7

The first anti-Cylon virus was close to done. At least he thought it was. Gaeta looked at the lines of code until they started to blur together into a weird floating smudge that resembled a Cylon raider slowly turning for a kill. He watched in amusement as the Cylon raider flipped and went after the trailing Vipers that suddenly appeared in the green lines of code.

" What the hell is this?" Gaeta jumped visibly in his chair as Colonel Tigh put a hand on his shoulders. Tigh pointed at the streaming lines. It was just the code, Gaeta realized, the colonel was curious about the work he was doing. Not the space battle he had just hallucinated on the computer screen.

" Mr. Gaeta?" Tigh's voice rolled with impatience.

" It's just… the special project… that I've been working on," he stammered. I did not just hallucinate, he told himself. Still, he felt a cold wave wash over his body, and he quickly pressed his hands down on the console to make sure that they didn't shake in front of the colonel. He took a deep breath.

" What special project?" Tigh growled.

" To create a virus that we can send to the Cylons when they attack to immobilize their forces…" He hoped he didn't sound as rattled as he felt. The last few days had been a blur of interrogations, hours upon hours spent in the CIC and even more hours of math and programming. That hadn't left much time for sleep or food but he hadn't noticed until the colonel had spoken.

Dualla was staring at him with concern. He didn't like that, not at all. Dualla had enough to worry about. Of course, it wasn't like he didn't have enough problems of his own. Trying to explain anything to Colonel Tigh was chancy when he was at the top of his game, and he wasn't even close to being at the top of his game.

He wasn't even sure what game was being played.

"Hmm," Tigh muttered, as if he knew what even one line of the code scrolling before him meant. " Will it work?"

And that was the question wasn't it? " I don't know, sir," he said softly. It wouldn't go over well at all with Tigh, who wanted black and white answers to all of his questions, but Gaeta wasn't at the point where he could lie. " It's a first attempt. It's not likely to work on the first try. I just…. I just don't know enough."

Tigh squeezed his shoulder in a comradely way. " Well, hopefully we'll get a chance to try it out soon, Lt. Gaeta." Gaeta wasn't sure what hurt more, the fact that Tigh actually trusted him, or the fact that he was pretty certain that the first attempt would fail entirely due to his own misgivings. He had no idea if his very first attempt at a virus to defeat the Cylons would work. It would be a miracle if it did, and it had been a long time since Felix Gaeta had believed in miracles.

The first attempt would fail, anyone who understood mathematical probabilities understood that. The problem was that Colonel Tigh was unlikely to understand arithmetic let alone complex mathematical probabilities. On the one hand he liked pleasing Colonel Tigh, but on the other hand he knew that Colonel Tigh had no idea why his ideas and programs worked. The first attempt would fail, and Tigh would get angry and he didn't know how to stop that from happening since Saul Tigh was a math moron. It was like his worst nightmare, trying to explain mathematical probabilities to a nitwit jock who would never really understand the situation.

"It's not likely to work the first time, sir," he tried to explain. " The reality is that the Cylons should be expecting us to try something like this, and they will be expecting something like this." He hoped that he would be able to monitor the response. That would tell him if he was close or if he was totally off the mark. If he was totally off the mark, then Sharon was feeding him a lot of bad info on how the Cylon mind worked. Which was important to know, but he didn't want anyone to die to make that fact apparent to him.

"Hmm where are the midwatch reports?" Tigh asked.

Gaeta blanched. " The midwatch reports?" He had forgotten those, hadn't he? Forgotten them or just not cared since he was busy. He glanced at the clock, and sure enough it was the middle of the watch and he had nothing to give the colonel.

"The midwatch reports are with Lt. Alghee." Dualla said helpfully. She pointed to Alghee, who was hard to miss since he was just inside the fleet's maximum height requirement. Alghee trotted over, the reports dwarfed by his hands.

" I was delegated to do the midwatch reports, sir."Alghee intoned deeply. " By Lt. Gaeta. Here you go!" Tigh took the reports, giving both Gaeta and Alghee a dark look, and stalked away. Alghee smiled and gave him a thumbs up gesture before going back to his usual station.

He waited until Tigh was well out of earshot to whisper to Dualla, " Did I really give those reports to Alghee to do?" He didn't remember doing anything of the sort. Then again, he couldn't quite remember how he'd gotten to the CIC for his shift. It was possible that he hadn't left. He suddenly realized that his whole body ached from having sat in the same position for what must've been hours. His feet were numb. He was thirsty beyond belief and his head was pounding.

" You did." Dualla said suddenly.

" I did what?" Gaeta dropped his hands to his lap, because pressing down hard on the console wasn't stopping the shaking.

Dualla looked at him oddly. " You did order Lt. Alghee to cover the midwatch reports. You told him you were busy. Actually, you told all of us to leave you alone, that you were working on something." She looked at the code that was still scrolling on the screen. " Is this it? The anti-Cylon virus program?"

" I… yes… it's done." He took another deep breath.

" You don't look good, sir," Dualla said softly, " Like you aren't sleeping. You aren't using stims, are you?"

" Stims? No…" Stims were forbidden to CIC officers unless expressly ordered by the commander. Besides, he didn't like stims. They made him feel nervous and oddly numb, and like he couldn't close his eyes without worrying that something was going to leap onto him.

Of course, that was exactly how he felt at the moment. But he hadn't been taking stims. He was pretty certain about that. There hadn't been any time in the last few days to sleep, let alone track down a source for pills. " I'm all right," he said finally, knowing that he had to say something. " I'm just tired. I'm just going to go right to bed after this shift."

" That's a good idea, sir." Dualla went back to her station, but he could tell that she was watching him. It made him nervous.

Even the screens made him nervous lately. He watched as the Dradis scan went back and forth. It was hypnotic… like a Cylon's red eye going back and forth. It was almost soothing. Except for the sudden blotches at the top of the screen. He blinked. " Dradis contact! Two Cylon Raiders!"

"Put the fleet on alert!" Tigh shouted. The CIC began to hum with earnest activity. Commander Adama appeared out of nowhere and began barking orders. Gaeta knew the drill. He sent the call for actions stations out, alerted the CAP, and had the ready fighters in the tubes even as Adama gave the orders. Two raiders was scary, but it wasn't likely to result in the death of everyone in the fleet. He hoped anyway.

" The ready fighters are away, sir," Dualla said. " They should make contact in two minutes." Gaeta watched the fighters move on the screen. It really looked like fighters this time, not a hazy coded vision. It was better.

"Mr. Gaeta!" He jumped at the sound of the Commander's voice. He turned to see Adama staring at him, not quite a glare, but not exactly a friendly look either.

" Sir?"

"We're engaging the enemy. It would be nice if you paid attention." Adama's eyes were like glittering dark coals. " Col. Tigh says that you have a prototype virus ready?"

It wasn't ready, he knew he hadn't said it was ready. Tigh was half frowning, half smirking at him, and Gaeta suddenly realized that it wasn't just Tigh and Adama who were staring, it was everyone there. They wanted it to work.

And he had no idea if it would. " It's a prototype… it may not work."

Adama waved off his concern. " Two raiders… if it doesn't work, the fleet isn't at a huge risk. Get it ready, Mr. Gaeta."

" It is ready. We just have to transmit it. On your mark, sir." Gaeta put his hand to the console, and tried to ignore the bile rising in his throat.

" Get the ready fighters on wireless," Adama said quickly. " Starbuck, have you got visual?"

" Got it sir, two raiders." Kara's voice skipped across the CIC.

" I want the Raptor making full scans, we're going to try something. Do not engage until we transmit." Adama looked over to Gaeta. " Transmit the virus."

Gaeta hit the transmit button and held his breath. The silence in the room seemed to deafen him. Please don't get anyone killed, he told himself.

" Galactica, raiders are behaving erratically." Kara's voice rose with excitement. " They're all over the place…. Wait…. No, they seem to be getting back under control. Whatever you did, it didn't work for long. They're still twitching a little but coming at us. Permission to engage?"

"Granted."

In a matter of seconds the raiders were destroyed and the next order of business, jumping to the escape coordinates was underway. Gaeta went through the motions but he couldn't shake the intensely cold chill that had centered on him when he had transmitted the code to the Cylon raiders. He jumped as he felt another hand touch his shoulder. It was the commander. " Sir?"

" Keep working on it. It looks like you're pretty close, but even a few moments of interruption might save us. Good work." Adama was clearly pleased.

"But it didn't work," Gaeta said nervously. " They were able to defeat it." He didn't know why the commander was so pleased. His virus had, as near as he could tell, been defeated by the Cylon defenses in under thirty seconds.

Adama eyed him carefully. " Are you on stims, Lieutenant?" That was said quietly, so that no one else could hear. There was no accusation in the commander's voice, just concern.

" No, I just… I haven't been able to sleep." Because I might be a Cylon spy, he almost blurted. He hoped he hadn't said it out loud, but judging by the commander's concerned look, he hadn't. That was good. Because he wasn't sure, not yet.

And maybe he just needed some sleep. It had been a while.

Adama looked him over. " You're relieved of duty for the next twenty four hours, Lt. Gaeta. I expect you to see Dr. Cottle immediately. He'll decide whether you need a longer medical leave." More quietly he said, " You're no good to anyone if you drop from exhaustion. Dismissed."

Gaeta nodded and quickly left. Orders were orders, but he doubted that the commander would mind that he stopped at the lavatory to throw up before reporting to Dr. Cottle.


	8. Chapter 8

Bill Adama knew that there were problems on his ship. In fact, he knew that there were very serious problems. He was short staffed everywhere. There were rumblings coming from maintenance about people getting pneumonia from breathing in too much mold, and even more rumblings about people insisting that they were being served mold in the mess hall. People were grieving and unhappy and there was precious little comfort available to anyone and even simple things like meals and quarters were becoming unpleasant. There hadn't been any suicides, thank the gods for that, but there had been a lot of death, and enough of those had been suspiciously reckless that he couldn't help but wonder.

He excused a lot because of just how unpleasant things were. There was so much fraternization going on, he couldn't even keep track of who was with who anymore, and truth be told, he didn't really care. If it helped morale, then he wasn't going to stop it. The only time he had stepped in was over Valerii and Tyrol and that was because it had gotten much larger than casual sex.

Stim abuse was different, although he had no intention of throwing the guilty into the brig. Stims were supposed to be kept under lock and key and he had made sure that all of his officers understood that stims were not to be used unless he ordered it. It was too easy to slide down the slippery slope into addiction. It also affected performance worse than the users thought. He had thought that everyone had learned a lesson from watching Kat implode emotionally while trying to land a Viper hopped up on stimulants. It wasn't a healthy thing to do, no matter how much work needed to be done.

He had to admit, he had been surprised to see the dilated eyes, twitching, and disjointed responses that typified stim abuse on Lt. Gaeta. Not so much that the man was using stims, Adama understood the temptation, had even succumbed to it back when he was a Viper pilot, and he knew as well as anyone that there was a lot of pressure on the officers. No, what surprised him was how suddenly the signs had appeared. Either Gaeta had a much higher tolerance than most, or he had taken a very deep dive into the world of stim abuse.

Which would be dealt with, and Gaeta was luckier than Kat in that the problem would be dealt with discretely. It was very lucky, or possibly just sad, Adama wasn't sure which, that Tigh had been too inebriated to notice that the watch officer was higher than a kite. It was a shame that Gaeta had been too out of it to notice how excited and happy everyone had been, but that was what happened when stims took over. It was unlikely that Gaeta would have noticed if the ship had been on fire, judging from how he had been acting.

He walked into sickbay, noting with pleasure that for a change, no one was screaming and there wasn't a line up. The various paramedics were stitching up a few crew members who had sustained minor injuries. Nothing too serious, Cottle would have already sent a grousing report.

" Don't I have enough to do without you sending me more problems?" Cottle huffed as he entered the main exam area. Judging by the way the medics all scurried away, Adama knew that the quiet was soon to be broken. Still, it wasn't like Cottle would get that upset over another case of stim abuse.

" I trust that Lt. Gaeta made his way down here?" He tried to not let Cottle get to him. Sure, Cottle was the only doctor in the fleet, but he was the commander. That meant that no matter how pissed off Cottle was, he expected the doctor to raise his concerns in private. It wasn't like he enjoyed sending the senior staff down to sickbay strung out on stims.

Cottle seemed to understand that. He gestured to his office. He made a point of closing the door carefully as soon as Adama was inside. He thrust a print out at Adama. " I hope you didn't tell anyone that you thought he was using stims, because he's clean."

"He's clean? That's… a surprise." A big surprise. " Are you sure?"

" I ran the test twice. He's not on stims." Cottle sat down at his desk and leaned back. " You know, Bill, if you want the crew to not wander around looking and acting like they're tripping out of their skulls on stims, you have to let them eat, and drink, and sleep occasionally. You might have fewer problems with mutiny, too." He lit up a cigarette. "Someone on stims would have needed a couple horse tranquilizers just to calm down. Besides, despite the obvious signs, he's not showing the symptoms of stim abuse. Stress, exhaustion, yes, but no stims." Cottle took a long puff. " You know, on average, people get about six hours of sleep every twenty four hours on this ship. That's two hours less than they should get. Now do you want to guess how many hours a night you have allotted to your lieutenant? About two. When he's not **busy** with secret projects. Do you want to guess why he seems a little disconnected?"

" I didn't know that." He should have known that, especially before assuming it was stims. He did sign off on the schedules, and it had been noticeable that maintaining a true watch schedule was only possible because the watch officers, all three of them including Tigh pulled more hours than they should. He tended to dump extra duty on Gaeta because unlike Tigh, he didn't have the rank or the confidence to tell the Old Man to frak off, and unlike Alghee, he was thorough, competent, and not prone to having sex with anything that wandered by. " It is just exhaustion? Nothing else?"

" I'm not a shrink," Cottle said after a moment. " My guess? He's got something on his mind, above and beyond the charming circumstances that we find ourselves in on a daily basis. I don't know what, I skipped the touchy feely let's all talk about our dead mommies nonsense, but I assume it's related to his duties. Whatever the secret project of the day is," and Cottle held up his hands, " you might want to drop the urgency. If possible."

" It's not." In fact, Adama thought tiredly, the very fact that they were so close to a working weapon meant that he couldn't drop the urgency. If anything, the urgency had to be at least maintained, if not increased. They desperately needed a weapon that gave them an edge.

Cottle blew smoke rings. " I figured as much. So once he wakes up from the mild sedative, shall I just send him on his way? Pump him full of anti-depressants? Punch him in the mouth? All of the above? Whatever that's eating at him, sleeping on it is going to put off the crash, not stop it. Not unless you know what's wrong and aren't telling me." Cottle took another long drag on the cigarette. He gave Adama a long, searching look. " This reminds me of when Valerii shot herself in the face. So much so, I made a point of checking with Dr. Baltar on whether he had gotten around to testing all the CIC staff. He had, and everyone had passed. I trust that warms your heart. And your bullet scar."

"I'll deal with the scheduling situation." Adama stood up. He understood what Cottle was trying to dance around, that he knew what the secret project involved, and that the situation with his tactical officer was edging towards an explosion.

Cottle nodded. " Might not be a problem for long anyway. Your Cylon prisoner? Is showing increased signs of severe depression. There's a problem."

The problem, Adama thought angrily, was that his project failsafe had somehow failed him, and he didn't understand that at all. That meant his next little chat would be with the failsafe, and he didn't look forward to that. He didn't like being angry with Dualla, even when she deserved it.

Dualla stood stiffly at attention. She knew exactly why she had been called to the commander's quarters. She didn't appreciate it at all, not one bit. Yes, she knew that she had been assigned to the project to watch for signs that Lt. Gaeta was getting in too deep. She had done that. She had written up reports. She had stood in the commander's quarters and verbally expressed her concern that an officer, and a good friend at that, was getting hoodwinked by a Cylon into thinking that he was somehow guilty for a heinous crime. What she couldn't do, what she didn't have authority to do, was stop a downward spiral once it had gotten outside of her control.

She had been worried when she started to hear rumors about Gaeta and Valerii. Even though she knew that Kara Thrace was behind the majority of them, it wasn't like she could go to Kara and tell her to shut her mouth. Just like she couldn't give Helo the piece of her mind that she had wanted to give him ever since she had heard that he had been hassling Gaeta. She had been especially worried when she started to realize that her friend, and the man she was supposed to be watching out for, was spending all of his time, both on and off duty, obsessing over a computer program that had consumed his personality for the last six days.

She could worry. And she did. She just couldn't do anything. And Commander Adama knew it.

He was looking at her with real anger. She looked right back. He didn't scare her, much anyway.

" So how exactly did things get to the point that Lt. Gaeta is in sick bay?" Adama asked softly. He took a seat behind his desk. " Well, Petty Officer?"

" Permission to speak freely, sir?" She was counting on that.

" Granted."

" I'm not the lieutenant's mother. I'm not an officer. I don't have the authority to stop the things I see happening." Dualla kept her tone cool and even. She knew she had Adama's respect, and one of the reasons that she did was because she didn't let her rage take over. " I told you, repeatedly, that the Cylon was trying to twist Lt. Gaeta into believing that he was some sort of Cylon spy. I gave you tapes with the pertinent parts keyed up for listening. I gave you reports on my concerns. I have been available to you, and to Lt. Gaeta, to be supportive and to make sure that things don't get out of hand. These are things in my sphere of control." She held up her hand to stop Adama from speaking.

" Here are the things I **don't** control. I can't work an identical shift as Lt. Gaeta, so I can't watch him all of the time. I can't stop Lt. Agathon or Chief Tyrol from telling everyone about the interrogation project because even though I'm under orders not to discuss it, they aren't. I can't stop the nasty rumors that have about half the ship thinking that Gaeta is a Cylon. I can't order him to go get some sleep, or eat, or to do anything really, because he's my superior officer. He isn't required to explain himself to me or ask my permission before he starts using stims to complete his project, or before he works himself into a breakdown because I might be a friend, but I don't out rank him." She paused to catch her breath. " I can only report to you what I know. I had no idea that Lt. Gaeta was using all of his spare time to work, or that he was skipping meals, because I can't be with him every minute of the day and still do my job. I told you I was worried."

Adama glared at her. She glared back. Finally he looked down at some papers on his desk.

" Do you think Lt. Gaeta is a Cylon, Dee?" It was the way he asked it that worried her. Like he was considering the possibility very carefully.

"Absolutely not." That was the truth. She had always gotten a bad feeling about Sharon Valerii, but never about Felix Gaeta.

" They can be very deceiving," Adama said after a moment, " But I am inclined to agree with you. She got in his head. The good news is that he did the same to her, and now I need to make a choice. Do you have any idea how close Mr. Gaeta is to making this virus work?"

" No sir, the math is over my head. Dr. Baltar could give you a better answer." She supposed. Dr. Baltar was, in her opinion, more of a showman than a true scientist. He might **say** it was close, just to please the commander.

The commander grunted. " I doubt that, very much." He took off his glasses, and took a step closer to her. " We need this virus to work. From now on, if you see or hear, or suspect anything, you are to come to me immediately. That means, if you think anyone or anything is threatening this project from being completed, you tell me immediately. If it's an emergency, you use any force necessary to make sure that we end up with a working computer virus."

" What do you think is going to happen… sir?" She hadn't thought of anything that struck her as an emergency. She also didn't like the emphasis he was placing on the virus. It suggested that the people making the virus just might be expendable.

Oh hell, she thought suddenly, we are expendable compared to a weapon that can stop Cylons cold. She suppressed a shudder. There were a lot of reasons that she was glad to not be an officer, and the cold blooded trading of lives of one.

" I don't know what's going to happen," Adama said. " But let's be prepared."


	9. Chapter 9

Kara Thrace didn't consider herself an unkind person. Impulsive, rude, and insensitive sure, but she wasn't intentionally mean to people. When she spotted Gaeta sitting by himself in the rec area, with his uniform undone and rumpled, holding a notebook and tapping it aimlessly with a pen, she stopped herself before she said something about all the rumors she had heard.

Rumor was that Gaeta had been hauled down to the sickbay after bitch slapping Colonel Tigh for mocking his anti-Cylon virus in a wild stim frenzy. The way Kara figured out rumors was that the wilder they were, the more likely things had been exaggerated or lied about. She had grabbed Alghee and his latest girlfriend Scholls and gotten a much less thrilling but more likely story about Gaeta looking like death and being barely coherent with the commander. Since Gaeta seemed to still look like death, she figured it probably wasn't the right time to ask if he had picked up some Cylon STD from Sharon.

She sat down at his table. After a moment of waiting, she realized that whatever was wrong with him the day before, spending time in sickbay had not cured him. She snapped her fingers in his face. After a very long moment, he blinked. " Did you want something?"

Kara made a real effort to not grin. " Aren't you supposed to be in sickbay?" She had a pretty good feeling that things had gotten busy down in sickbay and Gaeta had somehow slipped away without anyone noticing.

He shook his head slowly. " Dr. Cottle gave me a shot."

" What kind of shot?" She could guess. A hefty dose of mood enhancers from the looks of things. The doctor generally didn't prescribe his relatively small supply of psychiatric drugs without a very good reason. She had, during her time in sickbay, heard his rational on the subject many times. There were only so many drugs, and there were thousands of people in the fleet who all had many very good reasons to want drugs to level out their days of drudgery. There just wasn't enough to go around. That was the first reason. The second was that the really heavy duty drugs didn't just level a person out, they stripped a person of their normal reactions. Cottle normally reserved such treatment for the really suicidal, and for people who were so vital to the ship's survival that they had to be kept working.

Which said a great deal about how close Gaeta was to making his anti-Cylon virus work. After all, they were short on scanner monkeys in the CIC, but not that short.

Gaeta shrugged slowly. " He said I would feel better…." He blinked again. " But now I feel tired, and a little… " He sighed. " I don't know."

This is just sad, Kara thought. " So what are you doing here?"

" I was making a list." He sighed again. " I'm supposed to be working on the virus program but I got distracted by the list. Again."

Now do I want to know what he's obsessing over, Kara asked herself. Not really. Delving into someone else's nervous breakdown wasn't really her thing. On the other hand, she wasn't a total bitch. Sure, he might not be one of her best pals, but he was a friend, and he was the sort that wouldn't hang her out to dry if he found her in a drug induced fog.

"What list?" she asked.

He handed the notebook to her. " I was making a list of reasons why I'm a Cylon and reasons why I'm a human."

" That's very logical," Kara said pleasantly. She looked at the notebook. " You certainly have a lot of reasons that you're a Cylon. You've even alphabetized them… very nice. But there's really nothing that proves you're human?" Yeah, this was a really healthy thing for Gaeta to do with his time. " Does anyone know that you've been doing this?"

" I told Dr. Cottle. That's when he gave me the shot." Gaeta blinked slowly. " He said that if I don't start acting normal, he'd give me another shot. A stronger one." He shuddered in slow motion.

Kara looked down the list. It was actually quite formidable. " You found Kobol?"

Gaeta nodded. "I was the one who did the jump coordinates that led us there."

" And you gave a signal to Sharon to kill the commander?" That was interesting. " What was it?"

" I shook her hand. I might have passed her a gun. I don't really know anymore." Gaeta rubbed his hands slowly. " I should get back to work… the commander said I had to finish the project. That's why Dr. Cottle gave me the shot so I could go back to work." He didn't move, however. " I don't know why he wants me to finish it. I'm probably secretly sabotaging the ship. Like that time that I lost the fleet, which led to the Cylons boarding the ship. Or like how I networked the computer and let that Cylon virus on board and nearly killed us all on multiple occasions." He leaned over the table, his expression intent. " I **am** a Cylon. I think."

" Or, you're just incompetent at your job, nearly getting us killed all the time. You have to consider that possibility as well. I mean, sure maybe you really are a secret Cylon spy who is subconsciously sabotaging the fleet, but maybe you just get tired and make mistakes. It happens." Although, Kara admitted to herself, she didn't think Gaeta was incompetent. Getting more than a little mentally frakked up, yes, but not incompetent. The anti-Cylon virus weapon was close to working. The commander clearly wanted it completed and he either didn't believe or didn't care that Gaeta was convinced that he was a Cylon.

Scratch that, Kara thought suddenly. Commander Adama did care, he just cared more about getting an upper hand with the Cylons. Once the weapon was complete and working, then there would be a full investigation into whether or not Gaeta was a toaster. Not that she believed it. The very fact that Felix Gaeta was going over the edge at the thought that he was possibly a Cylon seemed like a pretty good indicator that he wasn't. Not to mention the fact that she knew that all of the CIC staff had been tested. Tested twice in fact, with the more refined testing process, to make sure that no Cylons slipped through the cracks.

Gaeta was just having a breakdown and needed someone to show him that he wasn't a Cylon. " Look, I know something we can do that will prove you're not a Cylon."

He woke up suddenly. Not my bed, he thought somewhat incoherently, this is not my bed. His quarters were the size of a large closet, and much larger than the rack he was lying on. What am I doing lying in some crewman's rack, Gaeta thought as he carefully sat up.

No, not just a crewman's rack, he was in Kara Thrace's rack. In the pilot barracks. And he and Kara… why, they had spent what felt like hours in her bed. He didn't consider himself inexperienced but she had done things that he hadn't even heard about. He felt bruised.

Neatly folded at the foot of the rack were his clothes and his notebook. It was opened to his list, and written in a surprisingly feminine hand in the pro-human column was a new entry. 'No glowing spine during orgasm. Tested repeatedly.' Underneath that was another note. 'Blood passed Dr. Baltar's Amazing Cylon Detection Test. You worry too much, Felix. Don't forget to make up my rack before you go.'

He almost smiled. Almost. Kara was just trying to be nice. She thought he was insane. So did Cottle. Despite the list, he was willing to allow that it was certainly possible. Not as likely as his being a Cylon, but possible. He certainly couldn't remember ever feeling so odd. What did being crazy feel like? He wasn't sure, but he suspected that it felt a lot like how he felt right now. Logy, dazed, paranoid.

Probably not so bruised though.

He got dressed slowly, not caring that he was probably late for some work shift, and especially not caring about the low snickers coming from Hotdog in the rack across the aisle. He didn't care. The important thing was to complete the virus program. That and find some way to prove that he was or wasn't a Cylon. He made up the bed and noted with some surprise that Kara had a small pistol under her pillow. Not the regular issue either, a small handgun loaded with armor piercing bullets. Without even thinking he carefully tucked it into his belt at the small of his back. A gun might be handy and he had a feeling that the weapons locker codes had been changed since he had been down to see Dr. Cottle.

" Hey Gaeta, I had no idea you were such a stud," Hotdog chimed up as Gaeta walked by him. " Is frakking Thrace as good as frakking your Cylon whore?" A few of the other pilots chuckled but it was an uneasy sound. Gaeta decided to ignore it until Hotdog blocked his path. He poked Gaeta. " Are you going deaf as well as crazy? I'm not sure I like having some stimmed up deck trash frakking around our quarters." Hotdog's breath smelled of ambrosia. " Got anything to say to that?"

Gaeta punched him in the face and then in the stomach. He grabbed the stunned pilot and slammed him up against the wall, ignoring the gasps of shock from the few other pilots present. Softly he said to Hotdog, " You have no idea what you are frakking with right now."

He let go, and stalked out of the now silent pilot quarters. It was time to get back to work.


	10. Chapter 10

"Wake up, Dee."

Anastasia Dualla's eyes opened. It was dark in the enlisted barracks, and she was still half asleep. She didn't want to be awakened in the middle of the night by anyone. Still, if someone was bothering, it had to be important. She didn't hear the buzzing of the general quarters alert but that didn't mean that there was no problem. She looked up.

It was Felix Gaeta. " I need you to help me." He said it urgently.

She rubbed her eyes. " Aren't you still supposed to be in sickbay?" She had checked before she had gone to bed. Dr. Cottle had assured her that Gaeta wasn't likely to be up for a few hours so she had gone to bed.

" I'm working on the virus. I need to talk to Sharon. I need your help."

Be nice, she told herself as she slowly pulled off the bedcovers and sat up. He's been under a lot of stress. He was a friend so she had to do what she could to help him, but she had to admit, she was pretty tired and pretty tired of trying to be a friend to someone who kept getting her in trouble. Besides, she was absolutely positive that the last thing Gaeta needed was another extended chat with the ship's resident Cylon. " Lt. Gaeta,… Felix… it's the middle of the night."

" There's no night in space," he said quietly. " There's just a twenty four hour clock that we need in order to prevent us from going crazy. Without a fix on night and day, the average human being goes insane in approximately two weeks."

"That's…. interesting." She took a good look at him in the dim light and felt her sense of uneasiness grow. Gaeta looked… flush with excitement. He looked happy. That was not what she had expected. Somehow she had thought that he might be a little down about the rumor that he was a stim junkie. Or the other rumor that he had gone crazy. She knew he normally was self conscious about how people thought of him. The rumors were the sort that most people would have been very embarrassed about. Mortified even. The last thing she had expected was for Felix Gaeta to be literally hopping with happy excitement at her rack.

Then again, what she really expected was for Gaeta to still be sleeping down in sickbay. "Are you sure this needs to be done right now?" she asked quietly as she started to get dressed.

" I am **so** close, Dee. I am so close on so many questions…You're the only one I trust to help me." His expression was serious, almost deadly intent, which didn't jibe with the edgy glow in his eyes. He didn't look well, she realized as she shook off the last vestiges of sleep.

"Are you sure that you're all right?" She buttoned up her shirt as she spoke. Now that she was up, she was starting to feel a growing sense of disquiet. Earlier, in the CIC when the commander had order him to see the doctor, Gaeta had looked tired and virtually disconnected from the surroundings. Now he seemed to be trembling even as he stood still. His eyes seemed to dart around every time one of the sleeping crew people made a noise. It didn't seem like a big improvement over too exhausted to think.

Her question seemed to throw him off for a moment. " Dr. Cottle gave me a shot. I feel much better now. Like I'm pulling 10gs in a Viper. Or like thousands of tiny bugs are crawling around underneath my skin." He paused. " You don't think there really are tiny bugs under my skin, do you? I think it's just an irrational sensation."

"No, I don't think so," she said quickly. " Maybe we should stop by sick bay and make sure that you're not supposed to be… feeling like that." She was no doctor, but she suspected that whatever Cottle had given him was not supposed to make him act the way he was currently acting.

" No no, we don't have time for that," Gaeta said quickly. He pulled her out of the barracks and started walking down the hallway. His left hand tugged on her arm, and his grip was surprisingly strong. He started rubbing his uniform jacket with his right hand. " I have so many things to do. We need to stop at the lab first."

"Why is that?" She didn't really care, but acting interested was the easiest way to keep things calm. She had a feeling that it wouldn't take much to turn excitable but still rational into frenzied and paranoid.

" I need to make sure that Dr. Baltar actually tested my blood. He gets distracted easily." Gaeta picked up his pace, and Dualla found herself nearly trotting in order to keep up.

" Tested your blood?" Dualla had no idea where he was going with that. Dr. Baltar was about the last person she wanted to see with a manic version of Felix Gaeta. At best, Dr. Baltar was going to be a complete ass about any request or any sort of weird behavior. And, she admitted to herself, Gaeta was acting pretty weird. On the other hand, Baltar was going to run to the commander like a terrorized little boy if Gaeta did anything other than behave like a fawning student. She had the impression that it wasn't going to take much to send Gaeta over the edge. She didn't want that. The commander was going to forgive a lot if the anti-Cylon virus worked, but she had a feeling that they were getting very close to the unstated line.

Gaeta stopped short. He looked at her with suspicion. " The Cylon detection test…Dee, I thought you understood." He looked hurt. Hurt and suspicious.

Think fast, she told herself. " I don't think you're a Cylon."

It worked. He smiled slightly. " You shouldn't be so trusting. Most of the evidence indicates that I am."

" No," she said, and she knew she wasn't just lying to keep the crazy man calm. " I know you aren't a Cylon, Felix." She knew it. A sentimental fool would be willing to forgive a lot if they thought someone they cared about was a secret Cylon, but she was no fool. If he was a Cylon, then so was she.

She hoped that belief wasn't going to lead her down the path that Chief Tyrol and Lt. Agathon had already trod. She prayed to the gods that she didn't really believe in that she didn't follow that path. There was no way that someone she had known, had worked with, had **been friends with** was a Cylon. It just wasn't possible.

" I hope you're right," Gaeta said after a long moment. " If I am a Cylon, then the fleet is in terrible danger."

Without thinking, she slapped his face. " Stop it!" she cried, " Stop acting like this is some sort of game. If you're a Cylon, you'll be executed! The commander will feel really bad about it, but he'll let the president throw you into an airlock just to be careful. Even a Cylon dies in a vacuum."

He seemed thrown off by her reaction. " If I am a Cylon, I should be killed. Dee, if Dr. Baltar has lied about my test, I fully expect you to shoot me. That's why I woke you up. You are ok with this, right?"

If it hadn't been for the oddly earnest expression on his face, she would have hit him again. " No," she said in a rush, " I am **not** ok with being appointed as your executer. You're having a breakdown. You aren't a Cylon. You just think you are because Sharon Valerii has been working you over as hard as you have been working her. This is crazy!"

" Dee, you're the only one I trust." He made it sound like he considered her his only hope, and not the person he wanted to blow his brains out. " You know I'm right. If I am a Cylon, then every human being in the fleet is in danger. It's your duty."

That was true. She had taken an oath, an oath she took seriously. If she knew that someone was a Cylon, she had a duty, a duty to the fleet, and to the human race.

Duty, she realized suddenly, wasn't as easy as being able to follow orders.


	11. Chapter 11

The trouble with trying to work on what amounted to a flying tin can filled with militant idiots was that there was never anyone to have a conversation with. Gauis Baltar knew how to talk to common people, he even enjoyed it at times, but there were times that he longed to have a lengthy intellectual discussion with someone, anyone. On something other than the technical mechanics of killing Cylons. Especially something other than the metaphysical implications of Cylons breeding with humans. " Don't you ever get tired of this?"

Six looked up from her nails. " Every move we make brings us closer to God, Gauis."

Baltar sighed. He stepped around the lab table and sat in one of the chairs. " That's exactly what I mean. Don't you ever want to talk about something other than God and killing every human being? I mean… what about art? The theatre? Read any good books lately?"

She smiled secretively. " Gauis, are you bored? Is that it? Is the life and death struggle of the human race not entertaining enough for you? Am **I** not entertaining enough? Because I am sure we can find some more interesting things to do." She licked her lips and went to her knees in front of him.

He sighed again as she undid his pants. It was hard to believe that he didn't find that much enjoyment in what she was doing anymore, and his body was always happy to betray him whenever Six touched him, but it was all so easy with her. Some of the fun was in the chase. " Yes, that's all very nice… very nice… but we do this every day…."

She looked up, her eyes dark. "Is it excitement you crave, Gauis? That can be arranged, you know."

Before he could think of a way to respond, he heard the door to the lab open. I have got to put a lock that door, he thought as he quickly pulled up his pants. " It's polite to knock," he said gruffly. He had most of the tank brained guards trained on that point but the officers were a different breed entirely.

He was starting to do up the buttons on his shirt when he realized that it was just Lt. Gaeta. Correction, he told himself as Gaeta shifted slightly, it was Lt. Gaeta and one of the pretty girls that worked in the CIC. One that he hadn't had, although he doubted that Gaeta had brought the woman down to the lab for the two of them to share. He might be smarter than the average Galactica officer, but Gaeta definitely did not have an imagination when it came to such things. It would offend the younger man's sense of honor. No, the woman was probably there for some mundane reason. Possibly even serving as a watchdog, much the way that Adama used Gaeta as his watchdog. It hadn't escaped him that there had been rumors about his assistant. Some sort of physical collapse was what he had heard, and looking at Gaeta, Baltar didn't doubt that at all. He had never seen Gaeta look so rough. He had no trouble believing that someone that looked so pale and tired and yet almost unnaturally alert was possibly ill from overwork.

Not that he cared. The rumor mill also said that Gaeta was very close to making his anti-Cylon virus work. That would put Gaeta, at least in the mind of the commander, on the same level as Baltar himself. If not on a higher level, since Gaeta was a member of the military. Baltar didn't truly want Gaeta to fail, because anything that helped the fleet survive helped him survive as well… but he wasn't too upset at the thought that Gaeta was breaking down. It made his own position safer. "Lt. Gaeta? Can I help you with something? It's a little late."

Gaeta nodded. " I need to see my test results."

That was interesting, Baltar thought. He took another, more appraising look at Gaeta. There was something subtly wrong about the lieutenant. One of the rumors he had heard had concerned stim abuse, but the feeling of it was wrong.

" She's in his head," Six whispered, her voice filled with delight. " I didn't think that particular model had such subterfuge. Of course, from what we saw earlier, it looks like he got into her head as well."

Baltar nodded slightly to acknowledge her. He had been down earlier to check on the Cylon prisoner and she had been curled up in a ball, rocking back and forth, almost totally unresponsive. Sharon Valerii was very upset about the idea that her baby might not be a half human, half Cylon wonder child. " You passed the test, Lt. Gaeta.."

" I want to see the test results," Gaeta said sternly.

" Well, if you insist…" Baltar stepped back towards his records. The only odd thing about Gaeta's test results was the fact that he had run the test five times. He had passed every single one. Baltar had been irritated at the waste of time, but when Six dropped hints the way she did, it was better to follow through.

" He's suspicious of you," Six said as she followed him over to the records. " He's realized that everyone passes the test and thinks you covered it up. He thinks he might be a Cylon and that you lied about it." She chuckled. " He knows you too well, Gauis."

" Yes well…" Baltar said softly.

Much to his surprise, Gaeta pulled out a gun from his uniform. He pointed it at Baltar. "Stop talking to her, and get me the results."

Baltar put his hands up. " What are you doing?" He could see the woman beside Gaeta _(Dee?Dana?)_ start with surprise as well. Six leaned up beside him, her expression curious.

" I'm pointed a gun at you in hopes you'll focus on the job at hand and not on your companion." Gaeta used his other hand to point directly at Six. " I don't have time for you to confer with your pretty blonde friend on whether or not you're going to help me. Now get me what I asked for and we'll leave."

" You see… her?" Baltar felt the bottom drop out of his neat little world on the Galactica. If Gaeta could see her… then the test results might be pointless.

" Of course I do. Are you going to get the test results or do I have to tie you up and tear the lab apart?" Gaeta's voice was tinged with impatience and anger. " I don't have time to frak around."

"Better give him what he wants," Six cooed in his ear. " God's plan for you does not involve getting shot in this lab. The results are right by your hand, Gauis."

He grabbed at the test results blindly and thrust them at Gaeta's outstretched hand, ever mindful of the fact that Gaeta was still pointing the gun directly at him. Gaeta handed the results to the woman, his eyes never leaving Baltar's.

"Read those for me, Dee." Gaeta said, his voice suddenly pleasant.

She took the papers. " You're not a Cylon, Felix." She looked at the gun nervously. "Maybe you shouldn't be pointing a gun at Dr. Baltar." She wasn't liking the situation at all, Baltar realized. That might be useful.

" There's really no need for violence, Mr. Gaeta. I'm sure we can discuss this rationally." Six chuckled at that, but he ignored her. It was **concerning** that Gaeta knew about her, more concerning than she seemed to realize. It was all well and good that Gaeta was apparently having a psychotic episode because that would make him that much easier to discredit, but that assumed he got out of the lab alive.

" Did I pass both tests?" Gaeta asked calmly. " The first one and the more refined one?"

Dee looked through the papers. " You passed all five times." She thumbed through the paperwork and then looked at Baltar suspiciously. " He tested you three more times just in the last two weeks."

Gaeta's eyes seemed to flash as Baltar watched. " You tested my blood multiple times within the last two weeks? You were suspicious of me." His hand clenched around the gun. Baltar saw the woman tense beside him.

"Better say something," Six purred as she leaned over his shoulder. " I think you may have offended him."

" I tested your blood," Baltar said firmly, thinking very quickly, " Because you have been acting very oddly lately. I was concerned… because you're very highly placed in the command structure and you have been spending a lot of time with our Cylon prisoner." It was true, in a way. He had been more worried about the hints that Six had dropped _and how did Gaeta know about her_ a voice in his head yammered. The important thing was to get him out of the lab and then immediately get to the commander. Gaeta had to be discredited before he figured out any more of Baltar's culpability in the destruction of the colonies.

" Five times…" Gaeta seemed somewhat off put by that.

" But you passed all of them," Dee said reassuringly, her eyes still on the gun. " So why don't we go talk to Sharon? Remember? You needed to talk with her to figure out why the virus didn't work the last time." Her tone was almost cajoling.

" Yes, of course," Gaeta said to her. " But we'll need to tie him up. He'll run to the commander as soon as we're gone, otherwise."

" What?" Baltar cried.

Six laughed. " He's more clever than I realized. He certainly knows you well, Gauis."

Dee was hesitant, he could see that. But she did start grabbing the electrical cords that plugged the various devices in the lab into the ship's energy supply. " Why don't you sit down, Dr. Baltar? It will make this a little easier."

He did sit down, and she began to thoroughly tie him to the chair. " You know he's lost his mind," he whispered to her urgently as she bent over to tighten his bonds.

" That makes two of you," she whispered back, " and tying you up doesn't hurt you at all. I have orders from the commander to do whatever it takes to get a working anti-Cylon virus. If that means tying you up in your lab, then fine." She stood up. " All set, sir."

Gaeta lowered the gun and neatly tucked it behind his back. "Lets go then." The two of them left without another word.

" Well this is just lovely, just frakking lovely!" Baltar shouted at the closed door.

" God works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform," Six said as she knelt down in front of the chair. She tugged at his pants. " Now where were we?"


	12. Chapter 12

" I didn't ask while we were flying because the wireless is hardly private," Lee Adama said as he strode down the corridor along side Kara Thrace, " but what were you doing to poor Gaeta last shift? It sounded like… like wild dogs in heat in your rack." He wasn't jealous. Not at all. Kara was an adult, and she certainly wasn't his girl and he had no reason to be upset or jealous that she had decided to bed a fellow officer. She and Gaeta were the same rank, for a change two people frakking wasn't an issue, and it wasn't like Kara was dating anyone special. But it bothered him for some reason that he couldn't really define.

Kara shrugged. " He needed a favor, I did him a favor." She grinned. " I was surprised. I somehow didn't think he preferred women but trust me, I was wrong."

" Well, try to watch the volume, if you two do any more favors for each other," Lee warned as they walked into the CIC. He wasn't jealous or upset at all. There had been complaints. Well, he admitted, there had been a lot of amused laughter, but he hadn't been able to sleep. It was irritating.

They went up to the command center, where Tigh and his father were conferring with each other. Lee found himself perking up with interest. Tigh was pissed about something, and Bill Adama was clearly getting angry. It didn't bode well, especially considering the news that he and Kara were about to bring.

He stood by Kara, prepared to wait patiently. It rarely paid to get in the way when the XO was frothing over something. He didn't have the patience for it, and it often amazed him how patient his father was. If he was in command, he would have made sure that the XO was sober, at least most of the time. That would be a big improvement over Tigh's current track record.

"It's under control," Adama said curtly. " Alghee will take watch and Harrison can cover Dee. The important thing is that we get a working weapon."

They were talking about the weapon that Gaeta was supposed to be developing. It occurred to Lee that he knew the schedules as well as anyone and Gaeta should have been in his customary place. That was concerning considering what he knew about how Gaeta had been spending his time. He kept silent though. It was easy to be a complete prick about things. Sometimes though it was better to cut someone a break rather than rat them out. Dualla had told him that Gaeta had been the one to keep his mutinous coconspirators from being sent to the brig. He owed the man a favor. Still, it was surprising, for Gaeta to not show up for a shift, and more importantly for his father to excuse it so easily. Gaeta must be close, Lee realized. That was a good thing.

" What's the situation?" Tigh asked gruffly to the two pilots. He was clearly annoyed to be disagreed with.

" We've got a problem." Lee said easily. " Kara and I found an empty Cylon tanker."

" Big enough to resupply two basestars," Kara added helpfully, " and it didn't look recently abandoned. They're on our tail. Probably planning a big attack. That'd be my plan." She winked at Tigh and slouched up against a console. Lee wanted to smack her. She knew Tigh was already in a bad mood. She wasn't helping at all.

While Tigh started to turn a bright violent red at Kara's sheer gall, Lee carefully noted that the commander was looking at the bigger picture. He realized suddenly that his father looked tired. Tired and old. It wasn't a pleasant thought. There was no one to step up if something happened to the old man, Tigh had proven that point. For a moment, Lee regretted being the bearer of bad news.

" It's possible those raiders that attacked a few days ago were scouting for the basestars." Lee said. He hoped it wasn't true. He really hoped that he was wrong, all things considered. The pilots were tired and worn out. Hell, the ships were tired and worn out and even a short battle that just allowed the fleet to escape was going to lead to casualties.

" We have to be prepared," Adama said after a moment. " Get emergency jump coordinates ready. Amongst other things."

" Where the hell is Gaeta?" Everyone turned at the sound of Dr. Cottle's gruff voice. He was standing in the doorway entrance to the CIC, his arms crossed. " I don't have frakking time to make house calls. When I tell someone to show up at 0800, I expect them to show up and then be prepared to wait for me, not the other way around."

"He's… working independently today," Adama said after a moment. He glowered a bit at Cottle but it was clear his heart wasn't in it.

" I don't really care," Cottle muttered. He strode over to the gathering of officers. " I need to see him. To evaluate whether the medication I gave him is working correctly." He eyed Adama. " Trust me, it's important that I make sure he's reacting well or not."

Lee didn't need to read between the lines. He'd also heard about Gaeta's behavior from the day before. It was unusual for anyone to be ordered to sickbay. He didn't believe most of the rumors he had heard since he figured it was unlikely that his father wouldn't have thrown Gaeta in the brig for bitch slapping Col. Tigh. If that was true, and he had his doubts. At last check the rumor mill had Gaeta having a torrid love affair with the Cylon Sharon Valerii, and he didn't believe that either. Still, for Cottle to leave sick bay… something had to be wrong.

" I thought," Adama said quietly, " that you were just giving him some antidepressants. So he could work."

" There can be side effects," Cottle said, equally quiet. " It's unusual, but it can happen. Has anyone seen him?"

Kara stepped forward. " I was with him last night. He was fine. Trust me, he was having no problem functioning." She snickered.

Oddly, Cottle seemed disturbed by that. Lee didn't think that the older man was that prudish but he supposed it was hardly his place to judge. Cottle glared at Kara. " Do you mean that you two actually had… intercourse?"

Kara smiled broadly. " Let's just say that I had no idea that he was so inventive. Or flexible."

Cottle looked worried. " That's not a good sign."

" That's a matter of opinion," Kara said, laughing. Lee ignored her. It was clear that Cottle was concerned.

" He's having a bad reaction to the drug." Cottle said quickly. " The normal, standard side affect, along with the good mood, is dysfunction. Sexual dysfunction. If he was off making love,"

" I wouldn't call it love," Kara said, still amused. " More like wild frakking…"

" Whatever," Cottle cut her off curtly. " He shouldn't have been capable. It's a sign, a bad sign, that he's having a bad reaction to the drug. It's very rare. We need to find him."

" Why? Because he was frakking Starbuck?" Col. Tigh snarled.

"No," Cottle said gravely, " Because the drug is making him aggressive and paranoid instead of helping his mood. He needs to be watched carefully." Cottle rolled his eyes at their looks of disbelief. " Or you can wait until he decides to kill you all. Because it's coming."

" But…" Adama looked worried. " I'm sure that Petty Officer Dualla is with him."

Cottle rolled his eyes. " I'm not a damned shrink. This stuff normally works but when it doesn't, it can get ugly. You need to find both of them and fast."


	13. Chapter 13

For some reason, Gaeta couldn't quite focus on why he felt so odd. On the one hand, even though he was still terrified at the idea that he was some sort of Cylon spy, he somehow couldn't help but feel strangely delighted. About everything. Even the fact that he was probably a Cylon didn't upset him. It was also pretty nice to feel good. He felt great, like he was floating. Everything seemed bright and colorful, and things were moving that probably shouldn't be but it didn't bother him in the slightest. On the other hand he couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong. Dr. Cottle had told him that he would feel better, more in control and he had been looking forward to that.

He did feel better, in that for the first time in months he didn't feel tired. But control? It was all he could do to not start running down the corridor. Worse, he had kept wanting to giggle the entire time he had been holding Dr. Baltar at gunpoint. That mirth rose up in him again as he and Dualla walked down the dark corridors that led to the special brig, but he forced it down, allowing himself just a slight smile. It would not help at all to collapse in hysterical giggles in front of Dualla. She was being such a good sport

"Why are you smiling, sir?" Dualla asked. She looked more than a little nervous. It was important, Gaeta thought suddenly, to not let Dualla know how good he was feeling. Except, that suddenly he wasn't feeling so good. Suddenly, the crawling sensation under his skin seemed to ramp up and it felt as though small animals were trying to claw their way out of his body. It seemed like everything had gone dark as well, even though he knew the lighting hadn't even flickered. It's because I'm a Cylon, he thought suddenly. He didn't disbelieve the test results, he just didn't trust the test. Sharon had passed it, after all. There was still no explanation for all of the evidence he had accumulated, and certainly no explanation for why he felt so odd. Still, he had to say something.

" Dr. Baltar… I think he's crazy," he said finally.

Dualla nodded. " He has seemed a little… off." She looked at him worriedly. " To be honest, sir… you seem a little off these last few hours. What did you mean when you told Dr. Baltar not to talk to … her?"

That was easy, he thought with relief. " Dr. Baltar is crazy," he said quickly. " I know it's one of those things that no one talks about, but he's certifiable. I mean, I work with him. He's comfortable with me and he does things that he wouldn't do in front of anyone else. He talks to himself a lot, and I listen, and it's pretty obvious that he talks to a woman…. It's like a friend to him, and more because he usually gets very … excited when he talks to her." Excited wasn't really the word, sexually aroused was a much better term, but he wasn't sure it was a great area to get into with Dualla. Dr. Baltar was, after all was said and done, a pretty disgusting human being.

"How did you know that she was blonde?" Dualla asked.

" He usually dates blondes," Gaeta said. He stopped walking, and looked down at the sheaf of papers that Baltar had handed him. It wasn't just his test results, he realized. Baltar had also handed him the test results for Colonel Tigh and Sharon Valerii. He looked through the figures and results. Tigh's results were no surprise, but Sharon's… "That bastard!"

Dualla stepped back. " What?"

" I know how to get Sharon to talk," he said darkly. He took a deep breath and then let it out, willing himself to stay calm. It was hard, harder than he expected, because he wanted to run back to the lab and smash his fists into Baltar's lying face. The problem was that he just didn't have time. He had to know. It was like there was a ticking clock going off in his head telling him that the time to find out the truth was very short, and getting shorter. Which was strange in itself because he had completed the virus program changes before waking Dualla.

In a sudden moment of clarity, it occurred to him that he was the one who was acting certifiable. He wasn't a Cylon, the tests proved that, and if Baltar was suspicious of **him**, then it was because he had been behaving… badly. Then again, he had the proof that Dr. Baltar was hardly behaving well, didn't he?

He felt cold, like he had been splashed with cold water. Dr. Baltar was lying, had been lying. The scientist had to have known that Sharon was a Cylon. The attempt on the commander's life… the sheer hell everyone had been through since then. It could have been prevented. It **should** have been prevented. Baltar had betrayed them, had kept silent about Sharon being a Cylon. What he didn't understand was why. As much as it disgusted him on a personal level, he could understand how someone like Chief Tyrol might have been swayed to ignore his suspicions. He thought that he was in love with the machine, after all. But Dr. Baltar hadn't even known Sharon Valerii until the destruction of the colonies. There was no reason for him to feel any sort of loyalty to Sharon at all. So why had he lied?

" Lt. Gaeta? Sir?" Dualla shook him slightly. He realized suddenly that he had stopped walking. Dualla was looking at him, with more than a hint of worry on her face. She shook him again. " Are you sure you're all right? You went away there for a moment. Maybe we should stop down at sickbay and see Dr. Cottle."

The internal clock that had seemed to stop for a few moments suddenly began ticking again, loudly in his ears and faster. It amazed him that Dualla didn't hear it too, because it was so loud, he almost couldn't hear her. " No… I have to talk to Sharon. She knows the truth. I have to be absolutely certain." Because if he was a Cylon, a sleeper agent like Sharon, it was possible that his anti-Cylon virus was really an anti-human virus. His weapon could be used against the fleet.

But the test results…. He struggled to hear the rational thought but it was drowned out by the ticking clock. Sharon could tell him whether he was a Cylon or not, and he would make her do it. Because that would feel good, and he wanted to get that feeling back, and just turning his attention back to interrogating Sharon made him feel better. Good even. The crawling sensation eased back into pleasant tingling again. " Remember our deal, if I am a Cylon…."

Dualla rolled her eyes. " Yes, I'll shoot you, sir. But I think you should trust the test results."

" We have to be sure," Gaeta said again. The tests results though…. I'm forgetting something, he thought as they continued down the corridor, something important. He shook it off and let the warm colorful happy sensation roll over him. It was an unpleasant thought, whatever it had been. He would think about it later, once he was certain he wasn't a Cylon


	14. Chapter 14

" So, where would you go if you were on stim and maybe a little paranoid?" Lee Adama said the question out loud but didn't expect much of an answer from Kara. It was more of a way to think through the problem. Doctor Cottle had advised them to not start calling Gaeta on the loudspeaker. It was, the doctor had warned, likely to feed into Gaeta's delusions. What those delusions were, the doctor refused to articulate. That meant that they had to find him the old fashioned way, on foot. On a ship that was the size of a small city. Worse, Gaeta had been assigned to the Galactica for a lot longer than Lee had. Hiding would be easy for him. Finding him was going to be a bitch if he didn't want to be found.

Kara made a scoffing noise as they walked down the corridor. " He's not on stim, Lee. He's having a bad reaction to anti-depressants. And if I was on stims and paranoid, I would be hiding in the colonel's quarters with a gun waiting for a head shot. Now, I have a pretty good feeling that we don't need to search the colonel's quarters, so what now?"

" We track him," Lee said slowly. He felt like a moron. It wasn't the first time he had been asked to perform a task that he had no training for. Since the destruction of Caprica, he was always being sent off to do things that he'd never done before. One day he was a prison negotiator, the next he was a presidential attaché. Being an investigator was just another job that he had only cheesy serial mysteries to use in place of experience. In the books, there was always a part where someone, typically a young teen boy and his trusty tomboyish girlfriend go wandering through the forest looking for smugglers. " We have to retrace his steps," he finished lamely.

" Right." Kara nodded sagely. " I'm sure he'll lead us right to the stolen jeweled scepter of the Delphi Priests, Lee. You think Dad will let us have that treehouse if we catch him red handed?"

"Stop being an asshole." He wasn't in the mood for it. Not with a fleet of Cylons just waiting to pounce and not when they desperately needed a weapon to defeat them. "Where was the last place we know he was?"

" Sleeping in my bed," Kara said. She snickered at him. " You are so jealous."

" Then we need to start in our quarters. And I am not jealous." He hoped his tone would make her stop. He didn't have a lot of hope in that.

" You're not pretty when you're jealous, sir."

He decided that it was safer to just stay quiet. Kara was wanting to needle someone, and he wasn't going to give her the satisfaction. He wasn't jealous of Gaeta, not in the slightest. He wasn't the one having a nervous breakdown of monumental proportions after all. If that's what frakking Kara brought on, then he was happy to be spurned.

The pilot barracks was quiet but he wasn't surprised. People were tired. Lee was tired, more tired knowing that he was probably going to be in a Viper in hours fighting a hopeless battle against wave after wave of Cylon raiders. No doubt the few pilots that weren't on duty were trying to rest. He only saw one up at all, and that was Hotdog, who was looking sullen and holding a bag of ice to his face.

" Well, he's not here. So now what?" He was man enough to admit he didn't have a clue as to where Gaeta would have gone. He didn't even know the man that well. Pleasant, polite, all right to play cards with, Lee knew those things, but he also knew that Gaeta was one of many among the crew who behaved as though his father was the military genius of all time and that was one big reason why he didn't spend a lot of time socializing with Gaeta.

Or with anyone on the ship, now that he thought about it.

" Maybe we should make sure he didn't leave behind any clues," Kara said brightly as she looked over her bunk. She picked up a notebook that was on top of the neat covers. " Like for example, maybe there's a clue in the notebook he's been carrying around for the last few weeks." She flipped through it. " Math equations… math equations… lots of computer commands….Rambling, creepy list of reasons why he might be a Cylon sleeper agent…No, nothing helpful."

"Um… what? Back up to the part about his being a Cylon sleeper agent?" Lee tried not to yell at her.

Kara rolled her eyes. " Lee, trust me, Gaeta is not a Cylon. He's just spent too much time chitchatting with one."

He took the notebook from her and started to look through it. " Are you sure," he asked after a moment. " Just the first five items have me almost convinced."

" Yes, I am. He told Dr. Cottle and that's when Dr. Cottle made the decision to medicate him. That's also why he and the commander are trying to keep this a little quiet. If this got around…."

Lee nodded. " People would panic and someone would do something stupid and violent. But are we absolutely certain that he's…. not?" Because if he was, then the fleet was absolutely frakked.

" He passed the test. You know Cottle told the commander, so the commander must trust that the test was right. It's Gaeta that didn't trust the test. " Kara pointed to one of the numbered items. " See? He wrote that he didn't think Baltar was being honest."

" And," Lee said, making the connection, " if he didn't believe Baltar… maybe he went to see Baltar? It's worth checking. They're friends, aren't they?"

" As much as anyone can be friends with Baltar." Kara sniffed. " Don't forget he must have met up with Dualla. No one has seen her and she did have orders from the old man to make sure that Gaeta finished his weapon."

"Hey!" They both turned. Hotdog was standing and Lee realized that someone had punched him in the face hard enough that he wouldn't want Hotdog as his wingman for the upcoming battle. Hotdog pointed to Kara's bunk. " Your little frak toy sucker punched me before he left."

" Well, perhaps you shouldn't have been calling him my frak toy," Kara said darkly. To Lee, she said quietly, " That seems a little out of character, like what Cottle warned about." She turned back to the cot and patted around the pillow. " We have a bigger problem, Captain. I **had** a little souvenir from Caprica hidden in my bunk and Felix found it."

"Souvenir?" Kara was being serious, and he appreciated that, but he just didn't get it.

She rolled her eyes again. " A gun, Lee. I had a gun, I didn't turn it in to the armory because it was a civilian piece, and now Gaeta has it, and he's not winning any prizes for rationality these days. So now what?"

"Now we track him down," Lee said simply. He had a bad feeling about how it was going to end.

A few of the petty officers in Dualla's barrack remembered seeing Gaeta wake her and one of them had even confirmed their suspicion that Gaeta was looking for Baltar. Lee was uncomfortable, Kara could tell. That was ok. She was more than uncomfortable. She could kick herself for holding onto the gun. She certainly didn't need to sleep with a gun under her pillow, but it made her feel better.

But Gaeta was definitely not well, and he was wandering around the ship in a state that the doctor couldn't even guess at, and he was armed and he had Dualla with him. Kara doubted that he would do anything intentionally to Dualla, but there was always a chance that the young woman would disagree with him and cause a drug induced explosion.

And if Dualla got shot or killed, that would be her fault.

They stopped in front of the door to the lab. It was closed, but that wasn't a surprise. Baltar tended to be a total ass about people entering the lab. Kara knew why. He couldn't keep his hands off himself and if one didn't knock, one got a show.

She didn't knock as she swung the door open. " Dr. Baltar?"

"Yes! Please! I need help! Lt. Gaeta well… he's gone mad." Kara and Lee looked around to find the voice. Both couldn't help but laugh as they spotted Dr. Baltar, tied to a chair with electrical cord, his pants clearly undone. Baltar seemed to shake off his upset at the sound of their laughter. " This is serious! He was armed and I think he might be holding a young woman hostage. I think he finally snapped, had a mental breakdown…He kept demanding his test results when I clearly had told him that he was not a Cylon. I mean I think we all knew it was coming… sad really. He was promising but… clearly too delicate for real scientific work…."

"Dr. Baltar," Lee said, " Lt. Gaeta is not having a mental breakdown. He's having a serious, possibly life threatening reaction to some medication that Dr. Cottle gave him. Did he say where he was taking Petty Officer Dualla?"

" You have to untie me," Baltar insisted. " I have to speak to the commander."

Kara had enough of that. She knew, and she was pretty certain that Lee knew why Baltar wanted to see the commander. He wanted to rat Gaeta out as insane, so that his little power base didn't crumble further. She slapped Baltar's face. " This is very easy, Dr. Baltar. Did Gaeta say where he was going? Yes or no."

" No… no… Yes!" Baltar practically spit it out. He was angry, yet frightened, not a pleasant mix. " He said something about talking to Sharon in the brig. Now untie me!"

" We better get down there," Lee said. He made his way to the door. "Coming, Kara?"

Good old Lee, Kara thought with a smile. She turned her attention back to Baltar.

" You can't leave me here," Baltar whined. " You have to untie me!"

She slapped his face again. Hard. " No, I don't."


	15. Chapter 15

He wished he knew where the lights for the special brig had come from, because it was always so brightly lit, it just felt better. What he really wanted was to lie in the sun and just, for a few minutes, forget that there was such things as Cylons. He missed sunlight. He missed it a lot. More than sleep, or decent food to eat, or even feeling safe. He missed seeing a horizon, feeling something other than stale, dirty, cold air on his skin. Every time he stepped into the special brig, he seemed to remember something about life planet side. It was rarely spoken about on the ship, missing life planet side, but he did. There were times, before he had started on the project and lost every moment of free time he had to do anything, let alone have fun, that he had been sad. Sad about how everything he had ever known had been destroyed. Sad about how all the people he had known before being assigned to the Galactica had died. Sometimes he was just sad about all the missed opportunities he had been given to be planet side instead of on board a cold dirty ship.

Lately, especially during the last few hours, he missed being able to feel sad. It seemed like he went from happy to angry with no feelings in between except impatience and more anger. He felt oddly angry even as he took his customary seat in front of the visitor window. He didn't like feeling angry, he didn't even know why he felt angry, except that Sharon had… Sharon had done something. Something that was bad, and that was why she was in the brig. And that was why he was angry with her, but the exact reason totally escaped him.

He also missed being able to hang onto his thoughts. Ever since Dr. Cottle had insisted on giving him a shot, it was like he couldn't really think any more. He had great ideas, and he knew, **knew** that he had been on the verge of discovering something important, but he couldn't grasp what it was. That made him angry. It was like his own mind was betraying him.

And yet he couldn't stop himself from smiling as Sharon Valerii slowly rose to her feet and dragged herself over to her chair. She had made him so miserable over the last few weeks. It was hard to remember that there had been a time when he had liked Sharon, that he had been envious of Galen Tyrol's ability to attract her. Sometimes, especially in the last few days, he saw the commander's blood pooling on the console when he looked at her. Thinking about blood made him angry. And oddly euphoric.

Sharon glared at him as she took her customary seat. It was obvious that she had been crying, her eyes red and puffy. " I'm tired of talking to you," she said curtly, " You just want to upset me. I'm not a fool. You come here and say rude hateful things about my baby just so I will talk to you. I'm not doing it anymore. You can go make your stupid virus program on your own. I don't care if it works or not."

"You should. You'll be dead just like the rest of us on the Galactica if it doesn't work." Of course, if Cylons really did transfer their memories, he doubted that she cared. His head was starting to hurt, to throb with pain, and he wanted to be done with the whole business. She meant what she said, he knew that just by looking at her. The crawling sensation returned, and he knew, with absolute clarity, how to pry the information out of her. He held up the paper test results.

" I have something you want. Something you need." He waited for her to take the bait.

Her eyes flickered to the papers in his hand. " What?"

" Your test results. I have your original test results. Whether you're really a machine or a cloned human. Let's face it, the real reason you worry and doubt yourself is because Dr. Baltar tested the other Sharon and said that she was human. He's been right before, so why wasn't he right about you? Even though you personally were never intended to be a sleeper agent, that knowledge gives you doubt. But… maybe Dr. Baltar didn't tell the other Sharon the truth. Maybe he did. The truth is here." He waved the paper in front of her.

" Give that to me!" she shouted. She leapt up and dove at the glass partition, her mouth screwed up into a snarl. In that moment, he lost any doubt that Sharon wasn't human. His theory was wrong. The … creature before him, snarling and pounding on the glass, wasn't human.

" No," he said easily. " There's a price for your peace of mind." He waited for her to calm down. " I've completed the anti-Cylon virus. I need my peace of mind. Am I a Cylon?" The question itself seemed to turn him cold with its power.

Sharon calmed down almost instantly. Her eyes took on an intelligent gleam. " Let me see it first."

He expected that. Even though he was suddenly almost shaking with rage, he calmly slid the test results through the glass partition. Sharon grabbed the paper almost instantly. Her eyes slid down the paper, devouring the words.

" Thank God," she said quietly, tears brimming in her eyes. " He lied… you were wrong…. Thank God…." She hugged her slightly bulging stomach.

" Now… I'd like an answer." It was the life and death of humanity after all. He didn't think he was being unreasonable.

She looked at him and smiled. It was an evil look. " I'm not telling you anything, Lt. Gaeta."

" I knew you would say that." Gaeta pulled out the gun. " Let me explain something. I know something about Cylons. They don't tell the truth unless they are threatened. I'm going to shoot you if necessary. In fact, I will shoot you in the stomach. And before you start thinking that I am bluffing, remember that I have absolutely nothing to lose here. I **might** be punished for killing you…. With a few weeks in the brig and frankly that wouldn't make me sad at all. I could use the sleep. Most likely though, everyone will just excuse it. They'll blame you. They'll say that you got in my head, that I wasn't responsible." He paused. It was important to make her understand that she really had no choice. " This gun is loaded. I will shoot you if you don't answer me in the next ten seconds and I will aim for your baby. So you better give me an answer."

Sharon blanched. In that moment he knew it would work. In seconds he would have a definitive answer.

Except that suddenly he was yanked back and his legs were kicked out from under him. He was on the floor, someone was on top of him, throttling his throat. He could feel strong hands stripping the gun from his suddenly nerveless fingers. He felt a sharp prick between his shoulder blades and while he still felt the maddening anger at being interrupted, it was a struggle to fight against the strange cooling sensation that was flowing through him.

" I got him," he heard. The weight came off him and he was hauled to his feet by Lee Adama.

" What are you doing?" he said, his words sounding oddly slurred even to his own ears. " I was so close…."

" Yeah, you were definitely close to losing it, Gaeta" Lee said, his expression both amused and relieved. " Trust me, in about thirty minutes you're going to be a lot easier to reason with."

" I didn't say it was ok to take my gun," and he turned nervously to see Kara Thrace smirking at him. She slapped him on the back, and then carefully encircled her arm around his while Lee kept a firm grip on the other " Come on, Dr. Cottle and the Old Man want to see you."

"I'm not done…" he said weakly as they started to drag him out of the special brig. Dualla came into his vision, vision that was oddly blurry.

"This is for the best, sir," she said simply.

The problem, Lee thought as he dragged a still protesting Gaeta to the CIC, was that he had a very bad feeling that Gaeta had been on to something. Sure, the deck officer was barely making any sense, but that didn't mean he wasn't normally pretty sharp. A few minutes of listening to him babble led Lee to believe that somewhere along the line, Gaeta had discovered something important. Unfortunately he was pretty incoherent. It was getting worse as the injection that Dr. Cottle had prepared for them to sedate Gaeta with took effect.

" It's a good thing you called the CIC," he said to Dualla as they headed to the CIC. " We were going to check out the special brig but you made us hurry." He didn't want to think about what would have happened if Gaeta hadn't been stopped. On the one hand, he didn't much care if the Cylon in the brig lived or died, but on the other, he completely understood what a nightmare it would be to explain to the press that the senior officer of the watch had gunned down the Cylon in a drug induced rage. He knew that Gaeta would thank him when the drugs worked their way out of his system, but that wasn't making it any easier to drag him through the hallway.

" I was getting scared," Dualla said, her concern plain. " I knew Dr. Cottle had given him something, but I didn't expect him to be acting so oddly. He said he finished the virus…"

" I did!" Gaeta insisted weakly. It was obvious that the sedative was taking hold of him. " I just… had to be certain and you ruined it."

" You aren't a Cylon," Kara said easily. "And Sharon the Cylon was never going to tell you the truth. She was messing with your head."

"Kara, remember what Cottle said." Lee warned. Cottle had advised them to not actively engage Gaeta in conversations about his delusion until they were certain that he was docile. Lee had no doubt that if he let go, that Gaeta would bolt, and he didn't feel like spending another few hours finding him again.

Kara snickered as they entered the CIC. " You're not a Cylon, Gaeta. Trust me."

The general quarters alarm sounded as they walked in. Instinctively he stepped back. The alarm meant an attack and an attack meant that he needed to get down to the launch tubes. But a glance from his father told him that it was too late. It better work, he thought darkly as he half dragged half carried Gaeta to the main console, because we're all dead if it doesn't. " What's happening?"

" Massive attack," the commander intoned. " You two won't have time to join the fight. The Cylon fighters dropped out just minutes from the fleet." He glanced at Gaeta, who was slowly sliding down into his customary chair. " Mr. Gaeta, the anti-Cylon virus… We need it to work. Now."

Gaeta blinked. " We might all die, sir."

" We are all going to die, Mr. Gaeta." Adama frowned intently. " The alert fighters won't launch in time. If your weapon doesn't work, we're all dead. However, we're all going to die if you do nothing because we're massively outnumbered. It's a bad deal all the way around but I think you're as human as I am and I know it will work. Now do it."

Gaeta nodded, albeit a bit more slowly than normal. Lee watched the screens nervously while Gaeta typed out the commands. His father was right. If the virus didn't work, the fleet was going to be destroyed in a matter of minutes. Hell, if Gaeta was a Cylon, they were all going to find out. Beside him Kara snickered again, and he realized that she was having the same thought.

" I'm sending the virus," Gaeta said after a moment. He was holding his breath, Lee realized with no small amount of fear. That was a bad sign. Worse, Gaeta then closed his eyes and put his head down on the console. It didn't inspire confidence at all.

The wireless was almost silent as the few pilots that had time to make it out the launch tubes contemplated the giant mass of enemy ships. Then, as Lee watched on the scanners, the geometric patterns of the Cylon formation slowly fell apart. " It's working!"

A cheer went up as the fighters began to plow through the crippled Raiders. Lee hugged Kara and everyone seemed excited and happy, even his father. Gaeta was the exception, and it amused Lee to no end to see the deck officer apparently sleeping through the victory celebration. We'll have to do something nice, he thought happily, once the lieutenant was awake and not acting crazy.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dualla slip out of the room, and he almost called to her but then Tigh slipped a flask into his hand and urged him to drink. I'll ask her later, he thought as the celebration began to roll over him.


	16. Chapter 16

Sharon was still chortling and hugging the test results when Dualla entered the special brig. She had made it a point to not see Sharon at all during the interrogation sessions. It was supposed to be a secret, and it had been. Until everything had blown up, no one had known that she was even involved.

She had to get the test results back. The virus had worked, which meant that Gaeta wasn't likely to get in trouble for trying to kill Sharon. In a just world, he would get a medal. But Baltar was going to make trouble, that was obvious. Whatever was on that paper, whatever had set Gaeta off and had pleased Sharon so much… That was a weapon that could be used to shut Baltar up. She didn't pretend to like blackmail, but she didn't see any other way to stop Baltar from pressing the point. Once the shock and surprise wore off, Baltar would be literally running to the commander.

Gaeta didn't deserve that. She had a very good idea of just how humiliated and embarrassed he was going to be over the drug rampage, and that was a lot. Felix Gaeta was her friend. She knew that he was the sort that got embarrassed if he had a spot on his uniform, or got a dressing down in public. Having a very public nervous breakdown from exhaustion, having everyone on the ship think he was a stim junkie or even better that he was frakking Sharon the Cylon, and then going on a rampage after a drug trip that rivaled one of the president's chamalla binges…. The last thing he needed was for Baltar to make a huge issue over being tied up. It wasn't like Baltar had gotten hurt. Sure, the commander would put him in his place, but it was just one more stick on the stress fire.

He had covered for her in the mutiny. She owed him a favor or two. " Sharon, you have to give me that paper."

Sharon looked at her. " Dualla… you've been in on this all along haven't you?" It wasn't a pleasant look that Sharon was giving her, but Dualla nodded. Sometimes you had to play through the pain, she thought as Sharon glared at her. She suddenly wondered how Gaeta had stood it, looking at the Cylon every day, conversing with it, taking its insult…

" I was," she said easily. " I heard every conversation. They were all recorded. The commander knows that you were baiting Lt. Gaeta the whole time. Was that just for kicks?" Dualla let the anger she had been repressing come out in her voice. " Did you enjoy driving him crazy?"

" Almost as much as he enjoyed using me for his little project." Sharon's eyes narrowed. " It worked too, didn't it?"

" Yes, it did." Dualla didn't want to get into just how lucky that was, but the dradis had made it pretty clear that they came within seconds of being destroyed.

" So he lied to me, and I told the truth, and you're mad at me. It figures." Sharon sniffed.

" He gave you what you wanted," Dualla said after a moment. " Would it have killed you to drop the game? You're lucky you didn't get killed. He was having a bad drug reaction."

Sharon smiled. " So you think I was just being a bitch? To poor little Felix who was having a rare reaction to mood enhancers? Didn't that strike you as odd? I mean really, have you ever heard of that happening before?"

"What are you getting at?" Dualla asked. It's a trick, she told herself. This is what Sharon does, this is what Cylons do. They lie and twist the truth.

" I'll answer his question for you, if you like. There are twelve models." Sharon paused, obviously enjoying the situation. " Twelve standard models… and he's not one of them."

Dualla tried not to show how relieved she felt. " Would it have hurt you to have said that to him?"

" You're clearly not as smart as he is," Sharon said nastily. " Standard models, Dualla. There's plenty of room for experimental models. Is he one? I don't know. Some of the experimental models were even harder to pick out than the standards. I saw a couple on Caprica. It's hard as Hades to convince some of them of what they are."

" Why are you telling me this?" She knew, of course. The Cylon was attempting to sow discontent, and it wasn't going to work..

" The other Sharon… she got depressed. Dr. Cottle tried medicating her, but it just made things worse. Instead of helping her, she got angry, and a little manic. That's when she shot herself in the face. And then the commander. You remember that, don't you?"

" I want the paper in your hand," Dualla said sternly. I will not let her do this, she told herself.

Sharon chuckled. " I don't need it anymore," she said as she thrust it through the opening in the glass. " I just don't see why you want it." She waited expectantly.

Dualla snatched the paper from her hand before it could be pulled back. " I don't have to play this game, and I am not going to. I have my reasons and that's all you'll ever know."

" You're protecting him, aren't you?" Sharon sneered. " You might be protecting one of us, you know."

With lightening speed, Dualla reached through the glass partition, and grabbed Sharon, slamming her into the glass, cracking it in places. " You listen, you lying little bitch. If he was one of you, then he would **also** be a lying little bitch, and not someone I respect and care about. I suggest you shut your mouth before I decide to talk Commander Adama into spacing your sorry Cylon ass for trying to drive his tactical officer crazy. Is that clear?"

Sharon's eyes sparkled with glee. " It's crystal clear, Dee."

Dualla let go of her, and stomped out of the brig before collapsing against a bulkhead, taking in deep shuddery breaths. It's over, she thought. I can go talk to Dr. Baltar and explain why he can't try to get Lt. Gaeta into trouble. Everything will go back to normal, no one will get into any real trouble and there were no doubts about anyone being human. Because cracking the four inch thick glass… That wasn't suspicious at all.


End file.
